The Kyuubi Twins
by KrimChan
Summary: What if Naruto hadn't been alone in his childhood? That he had someone to share the pain of being shunned. What if Naruto had a twin sister? Kakashi x OC
1. Prologue & Chapter 1

**This fanfiction is also on Quotev, under the same title! **

**I apologize for any OOCness, I will be following the original Naruto storyline for quite a bit, however it will start to deviate pretty soon. I will also be skipping some parts! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters! I only own my OC and where my plot begins to deviate! **

Prologue

Minato and Kushina stood there, with the Kyuubi's claw through their stomachs, protecting their beautiful twins, Naruto and Ryuuko. Minato had sealed the Yin half of the Kyuubi into Mirai and the Yang half in Naruto. Though with the heavy injuries and the quickly depleting of both of their chakras, both Kushina and Minato knew they weren't going to live much longer.

Minato had sealed what was left of their chakras into both of their children's seals so whenever they needed them, they would have it. Kushina started crying and telling her children to eat healthy and grow up wonderfully and to stay away from Jiraiya and Minato added some words but told them to remember-even though they wouldn't- at all times, no matter what, Kushina and Minato would always love them and be with them.

Chapter One

_12 Years Later_

Naruto grinned at his latest prank and he was currently running away from the chunins that were chasing him around town. A yellow blur crashed right into him into an alley and quietly shush him. It was his sister, Ryuuko, or Ryu for short.. They were near identical. Both had blond hair and blue eyes but Naruto's blue eyes were a more darker color and Mirai's color was lighter.

Their personalities were completely different too. Ryu's personality was more like Minato's, however if she got angry, she would have Kushina's explosive anger and if someone close to her was threatened or she got passed angry, she would have Minato's calm anger which according to Naruto, was even scarier than explosive.

Ryu had inherited Minato's genius mind though Naruto, was a genius in his own way also. Ryu was currently an ANBU in training, but reluctantly by the Third Hokage. She had threatened to burn his Icha Icha books if he didn't allow her to join ANBU. He hadn't taken her seriously until she took out a lighter, found out where he had hidden his books and when he started chasing her, no one was able to catch her, even his top ANBU.

The Third Hokage had realized with dismay that Ryu had gotten a hold of a scroll that had Hiraishin and she also found her father's kunai and started using them too. He knew that soon, in a couple years, there would be another 'flee-on-sight' Yellow Flash in the bingo books.

When the chunins were gone, Ryu popped her head out of the alley and looked around, seeing no one she walked out of the alley and Naruto followed her. Naruto and Ryu both high-fived each other. "Another prank successful! It's all thanks to my genius pranking and your speed, sister!" Naruto grinned.

Ryu nodded in reply. "I have to go report to Jiji and report about my mission though. Don't do any massive pranks without me while I'm gone!" Ryu jumped up from rooftop to rooftop and thought about the mission she had just finished. The senile old man refused to give her any missions higher than B or A ranked.

Even if she was an ANBU in training, it didn't mean she couldn't handle anything above the missions. Her shishou that was the one training her had praised her about how she was soaking up all the training he gave her.

He had told her that she was almost as a prodigy as him when he was her age. However, her shishou never told her his name. She only knew him as Wolf or shishou. He never took his mask off while she was around but she didn't mind.

Ryu arrived at the Hokage Tower and knocked on the window, scaring the Hokage and made him raise the paperweight in retaliation when he noticed who it was. Ryu dodged and caught the paperweight. "Jiji, isn't this the tenth paperweight this month? At least I did not just poof into the office." She sighed.

"Well, come in and report to me of your mission." He replied. Ryu shrugged.

"It went smoothly as expected. Jiji, give me something harder to do." Ryu pouted. Sarutobi sighed and threw a packet at her. Ryu quickly looked it through and looked back at him with confusion.

"You will be joining the genin teams. You will be with Naruto, your mission is to observe the Uchiha survivor and make sure he does not fall into the hands of the wrong people, do anything necessary. Last resort is to kill him." Sarutobi said gravely.

"What about my ANBU training?" Ryu asked. Sarutobi reached into a drawer in his desk and brought out a mask.

"You have passed, with the approval of Wolf. Welcome to ANBU, Fox." Ryu's face lit up with a smile and she rushed up to the desk to get the mask. Sarutobi smiled. Even if she was a prodigy, she still showed childlike tendencies. It relieved Sarutobi. "However, you are not to allow the other team mates in your genin team to find out that you are ANBU, or even Jounin for that matter, not even your sensei should find out."

"Understood, Hokage-sama. Is there anything else?" Ryu asked. Excited to tell Naruto that she was now officially ANBU but doing well to keep her excitement in place. Sarutobi shook his head in amusement.

"No, dismissed." And with that, a bright yellow flash signaled the disappearance of Ryu. The instant she disappeared, an ANBU with a mask of that a wolf, stood in her place. Sarutobi looked at Wolf. "You know your mission then?" Wolf merely nodded. "Good, you are dismissed Wolf."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

After Ryu had gone to tell Naruto, she went to the farthest training ground and waited there for her shishou. It was only a couple minutes later that her appeared. She grinned and held out her mask silently. Trying very hard to hide her excitement.

Wolf reached over and ruffled her hair. "Good job. You've earned it." He said with pride in his voice.

"Shishou...can I hug you?" She asked shyly. Wolf chuckled and nodded. Ryu ran the couple steps and hugged him. She only really reached his slightly above his waist. He hugged her back and then stepped back. He knelt down to her height and stared into her eyes through the mask.

"I have a gift for you." Wolf reached up the his left ear took of one of his earrings and pierced it in her left ear. "To remind you of your training with me. Never forget what I taught you. Also that earring is special. If you send chakra to it, I will be alerted. The amount of chakra you send, tells me how badly I'm needed." He said with seriousness. Ryu nodded in reply and he ruffled her hair once again.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

It was the day of the announcement of genin teams and besides Naruto, sat Ryu. Everyone was looking at her with curiosity. Well, the boys were. The girls were mostly judging if she would be a rival for Sasuke's attention or not. Iruka walked in and both Naruto and Ryu waved enthusiastically at Iruka with wide smiles.

Iruka merely shook his head at both of them in amusement. Both of them in one team? Iruka felt bad for whoever was going to lead them. As Iruka started announcing the teams, Naruto and Ryu both were basically jumping out of their seats to know who they would be with.

"There will be one team with an extra team mate but this was the Hokage's decision." Iruka paused, noticing the girls that haven't been picked-except for Ryu-basically lean forward in their seat. A better chance to land in Sasuke's team they thought. "Team Seven...Naruto Uzumaki...Sakura Haruno...Sasuke Uchiha...and Ryuuko Uzumaki."

Every girl glared at either Sakura or Ryu. Sakura was jumping up in joy and Ryu honestly didn't care. She had been making observations on the Uchiha subtly. Thinking on how to approach him. When Iruka left and the Jounins took their assigned genin team. Team Seven was still in the classroom waiting however, hours later.

Ryu was getting annoyed by the minute and Naruto had set up a classic eraser in the doorway prank for the jounin-sensei. It was a couple minutes later when he walked in and fell for it. Naruto started laughing and Ryu stifled a giggle. She however started her observations on the jounin.

He had a mask that covered half his face and he used his Hitai-ate to cover his left eye. His gravity-defying silver hair, sent a twinge of deja-vu to her as she had a mental image of her ANBU training shishou, who also had gravity-defying hair.

The moment the jounin stated that his first impression of the genin team that they were all idiots, Ryu's annoyance flared up and she released a sudden high amount of killer intent that was slightly malicious, she realized what she had done and as quickly as it flared up, it disappeared. It happened so quickly that the only person who knew what happened was the jounin. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto only felt a cold chill. Naruto just recognized it as Ryu's cold anger and turned to her with slight fear, and relaxed when he saw an impassive face and not a cold stare.

They had gathered on the rooftop of the academy when the jounin started speaking. "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time?" Sakura tilted her head to the side.

"Introduce ourselves? What are we supposed to say?" She asked.

"Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that." He replied. Ryu narrowed her eyes. 'What was she going to say?' She thought. Naruto piped up.

"Why don't you tell us things about you first? I mean before we say anything, so we know how it's supposed to work?"

"Me?" The jounin asked. The team nodded. "I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate, I don't feel like telling you that."

"Huh?" Naruto and Sakura both said at the same time.

"Dreams for the future, I never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies." Kakashi replied. Sakura turned to the group and with an annoyed expression said,

"Well, that was useless, all he really told us was his name." Naruto and Ryu nodded in agreement.

"Alright, your turns. You on the right, you go first." Kakashi said, jolting them out of their thoughts. Naruto grinned widely.

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Ramen shop but I hate the three minutes you have to wait for the ramen when you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobbies are eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them and my future dream is to become the greatest Hokage."

"Next." Ryu rolled her eyes.

"The name's Ryuuko Uzumaki, call me Ryu. I like to train my skills to perfection and I hate ninjas that abandon their comrades. They are worse than scum! My dreams for the future, I really never thought about. My hobbies…" She hesitated. "Training." She said after a while of thinking. Sakura went next.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. What I like...uhh...I mean the person I like is...uh, my hobby is uh...my dream for the future is…" Sakura paused and squealed. Ryu's annoyance built up. 'What's so special about this damn Uchiha anyways? I can probably win a fight with him by just flicking his forehead!' She thought.

'**That's because Tsunade-hime, took you in as an apprentice for a period of time, before you went into ANBU.'** Kurama rumbled in amusement.

'...That is true. Kurama, I know you're already suppressing my chakra for me so it appears the amount of a genin, but how am I going to fight like one? Should I be using the Hiraishin at all? Or just rely on my speed...How does a genin fight anyways? Should I just pass off as a prodigy? Should I take into consideration of shishou's teachings?' Ryu asked Kurama. The Kyuubi thought about it for a couple seconds.

'**Since the other me in Naruto is asleep, I can't ask to share information or Naruto might not be able to control the hatred when I wake up over on his side. You can always just make a telepathic link with Naruto and share his knowledge. You just need to ask.' **

'Thanks, Kurama.' Ryu replied with a smile at the fox in the mindscape. She had become friends with the fox two years prior and she now relied on him like an older brother and Kurama was rather fond of her.

'**Any time, kit.' **He reached his tail and fluffed her head. Ryu returned back to the present with Sasuke ending his introduction.

"...and destroy a certain someone." Ryu mentally face palmed. She had lost her opportunity to learn about the Uchiha! Her mission was going splendidly. Kakashi started explaining about their first mission the next day and Ryu stopped paying attention, only noting down the area and time.

She reached out to Naruto, mentally. It was nothing new, they had both done this before and it was now pretty easily for them to do so. '_Naruto.' _

'_Ryu?'_

'_I just realized that I don't know how to fight like a genin. Could I possibly borrow your skills and knowledge?' _

"_Yea, sis. Any time. I'll always help you if you need it.' _Naruto mentally grinned at her. Ryu grinned back.

-The Next Morning-

Ryu woke up with plenty of time to spare, used to her ANBU training times that made her often wake up at three in the morning. She quickly got ready and made sure she had her kunai bags and other bags on her then went to go make some breakfast for herself. By the time she finished it was nearing five so she went and woke up Naruto.

At five they went to the training area and noticed at Sakura and Sasuke were also arriving. "Hey.." Naruto said groggily. Sakura yawned in response. They stood there for a couple minutes and Kakashi had yet to arrive. Ryu slinked off to explore the training grounds, which took only a couple minutes before she was back with the group.

Three hours went by and Kakashi finally arrived. "You're late!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled at Kakashi. He gave him the excuse of a black cat crossing his path and took the long way. Ryu was simply ignoring him. Annoyed that a jounin could be so lazy.

'**Don't be so annoyed, kit. Also be careful of that killer intent of yours. Honestly, I had been annoyed yesterday and accidentally released some of mine with yours. I sure the jounin noticed the intense KI. Be careful, you almost blew your cover on the first day!' **Kurama scolded. Ryu sulked and she missed how Naruto was hasty and attacked Kakashi before he even said 'start.'

"and….Start." Ryu instantly grabbed Naruto and hid to the forest, suppressing her chakra on the level of a genin's and telling Naruto to do the same.

"Naruto, we'll have to work together to get those bells. I won't be using my ANBU skills or that would be incredibly unfair. Let's do that formation we made formed together." Ryu whispered to Naruto.

Naruto nodded and grinned. Naruto leapt from the cover and ran towards Kakashi. He high kicked and Kakashi dodged. Ryu came from behind and kicked low, Kakashi jumped. Both Ryu and Naruto started unleashing a storm of kicks and punches.

"U-zu-ma-ki Barrage!" They said together. Kakashi dodged all of them but noted how well they worked together. Ryu reached for the bell and was able to touch them before Kakashi jumped away.

Ryu and Naruto frowned. "That didn't get him? I thought we perfected that!" Naruto whined. Ryu just shrugged. Ryu grinded her teeth together and made a quick decision. She quickly took out one of the Hiraishin kunai and before Kakashi could see what it was, Ryu threw it with surprising accuracy but Kakashi dodged. It flew to the side of his head and Ryu grinned.

With a yellow flash, she appeared in front of Kakashi and punched. He caught her punch easily and she kicked. He also caught that. She twisted her body and reached again for the bells, but however before she reached it, Kakashi poofed and there landed a block of wood.

"Substitution?!" Ryu said angrily.

"Sis! The bells are over here!" Naruto pointed to the bells under a tree and went over to grab them. The moment he bent down, a rope grabbed his ankle and lifted him way above the ground. Ryu saw her chance and dashed to the bell, ultimately being grabbed by another rope alongside Naruto.

Ryu started squirming around and snarling at Kakashi who had gotten the bells. He then went off into the forest, going for the other two. After a couple minutes, Naruto's stomach started growling. Ryu blinked. "Did you not eat breakfast, Naruto?"

"No..he told us not to." Naruto replied.

"Really? I still ate breakfast…" Ryu replied sheepishly. Naruto spotted the bento down at the floor, unguarded.

"Ryu, help me down!" He said to her and she nodded, throwing a shuriken at the rope that was holding Naruto and threw one at the robe holding herself. She flipped down and landed on her feet.

Naruto instantly ran towards bento and picked up a pair of chopsticks. "Itadakimasu!" he said happily. Ryu was sitting besides him, not bothering with the other bento when suddenly both of them felt a cold chill behind them. It was Kakashi.

"What do you think you two are doing?" With an eye smile that just merely sent another chill down their backs. In a blank panic, Ryu sent a large amount of chakra into the earring Wolf gave her. Kakashi suddenly flinched but it was so quick that Ryu almost missed it.

Kakashi caught both Ryu and Naruto before they could run and tied both of them to the post together and that was when the alarm started ringing.

Sakura and Sasuke appeared not long after. Sakura looking shaken and Sasuke all dirty. Kakashi sternly told them they currently all of them failed but they would have a second chance after lunch however, they were not to feed Naruto or Ryu. And he promptly disappeared.

Both Naruto's and Ryu's stomach growled at the scent of food and Ryu blushed in response. Sakura and Sasuke nibbled on the lunch but then felt rather guilty at the twin's growling stomachs.

"Here." Sasuke raised some rice up to Ryu.

"Huh? He told you guys not to though." She said to Sasuke.

"It's better if we share for a better chance at getting the bells, I don't want you two to be dragging the rest of us down. So have some." He replied. Sakura did the same for Naruto. Ryu's impression of Sasuke changed. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Kakashi poofed in front of them with a furious expression, scaring all four of them. "You all…." Sakura and Naruto looked down in sadness. Sasuke tched his tongue and Ryu glared. "Pass."

All four of them stared at him in surprise. "HUH?!"

"Those who break the rules are scum..that's true." He said. "However, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Ryu narrowed her eyes. It was similar to what her shishou had told her.

Naruto's eyes started watering. "H-he's kinda cool, dattebayo."

"The exercise is over! Team Seven starts its first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi raised his thumb up.

"Yes!" Sakura said. Sasuke just had a smirk on his face. Ryu grinned. and Naruto started chanting,

"I did it!" over and over again.

"Let's go home." Kakashi said, turning and walking away. Sakura and Sasuke followed and Naruto started yelling at them.

"Get us off this post first, dattebayo!" They ignored him. Ryu sighed and slipped her hand into her kunai bag, quickly cutting them out.

"Naruto, you go ahead. I'm going to be staying around the training grounds a bit longer." Ryu said to Naruto. He nodded and went off after them.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was training in one of the farthest training grounds once again. She was working on controlling the lightning element in her chakra and changing it. Her shishou had already taught her his lightning element jutsu but she rarely used it. He told her only use it when she had no other option but to do so.

She felt a presence behind her and she quickly turned with a chakra infused kick. Wolf jumped to avoid the kick and when Ryu saw it was him, she blinked in surprise and bowed. "I'm sorry, shishou. I didn't notice it was you."

"Nevermind about that, you called me earlier? I'm sorry I couldn't go to you, I was in an urgent business."

"Oh. I did so without thinking. I panicked and sent chakra without thinking. I'm sorry, shishou." Ryu replied. Wolf chuckled.

"Well, if I'm not needed anymore, I'll be going now." and he poofed. Ryu stared at the spot he disappeared.

'_I'm no idiot, shishou.'_ She thought with a sigh.

**Since this story has already been posted on Quotev, there are already pre-written chapters. I will be posting them either weekly, or daily, depending on the demand/readers I get. **

**Please review! I would love your opinions, even if the chapters are pre-written. I also have a tumblr, under the same pen-name (KrimChan). It has postings of possible fanfictions, shorts, extras, and future tumblr-exclusive things. Also, you can request for character x reader or character x oc! Whether I do them is up to me, but will be most likely I'll do them!**

**I hope to see you all in the next chapter!~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: In the first chapter!~ **

**Chapter Two**

The first mission of course was catching that dreaded cat. Ryu was getting incredibly annoyed by the minute. The last time she did this mission, she almost murdered the cat with how annoyed she got gotten.

-Flashback-

_Ryu was annoyed. Her tracking skills were not yet truly formed and this was the tenth time doing the mission and Ryu really wanted to kill that cat. The ugly cat must have felt her killer intent and that made it run even faster. _

_At this point, Ryu gave up on trying to intercept it and instead was chasing it down. She could feel her shishou's amusement as he was following them at a leisurely pace. Kurama's red chakra leaked out from her and with a ferocious roar, Ryu leaped and caught the cat in her hands. She took out a kunai and held it maliciously. _

"_This is what you get for being so difficult, you ugly cat!" She held the kunai up. The cloak that sported one tail was wagging back and forth with her happiness at getting to kill the cat. Wolf walked up in the scene and sweat-dropped. _

"_If you kill the cat, I'll make you do training sessions with Gai." Wolf threatened. Ryu froze and the red chakra cloak disappeared and she just glared at the cat instead, shoving it into the cage that Wolf held. _

"_I really wanted to kill that cat, shishou." Ryu said with a snarl. "You owe me!" Wolf sighed and set the cage down, knelt down to Ryu's height and took off the Wolf mask. There was still a black mask covering half of his face but Ryu was able to see both eyes. _

_The right was the color of black and the left had a thin scar running down the eye, showing the Sharingan. The tomoe of the Sharingan was lazily spinning. Ryu reached her hand up and lightly brushed the scar, Wolf closed his left eye so she could trace it and he noticed that sorrow appeared in her eyes. _

"_Thank you for showing me this, shishou." Ryu said softly. Wolf stood back up and placed his mask on his face once again. She hugged him unexpectedly and she breathed in, storing his scent into memory. Even if he was to have no scent as an ANBU, she still was able to smell a faint scent that was his._

-Flashback ends-

"Ryu...Ryu...Ryuuko!" Ryu shook her head from the daze and blinked back into reality. Naruto was standing in front of her, shaking her shoulders.

"W-what?" She said. Naruto stopped shaking her.

"We finished catching the cat five minutes ago and when you didn't reply, we panicked." Naruto explained.

"Oh..sorry." Ryu said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Her gaze swept from Sakura who had an annoyed expression on her face, to Sasuke who was impassive and to Kakashi. Her gaze narrowed at Kakashi, which made him blink. Her eyes flashed red for a second before returning to their normal blue.

The next few days they constantly did D-rank missions and during each D-rank, Ryu would get more and more annoyed. It was after picking weeds out for a client's yard that her annoyance blew.

The instant they were done, Ryu went over to the Forest of Death and went deep inside it, knowing that the chakra of the animals in there would hide her own. The animals wouldn't be bothering her either.

With a roar, Ryu released six-tails and started destroying the trees around her. She snarled and went it didn't help her, she released another ferocious roar, scaring the birds.

'**Kit, if you want to relief your annoyance, how about you allow me to fight you?'** Kurama rumbled in amusement.

'Huh?'

'**Here, I'll show you how.' **Kurama sent some mental instructions and did exactly as he told her to do. A poof of smoke and there he was. Except...in human form. He had red hair, which in the back was long but it sort of formed an ear shape on top of his head. His teeth were sharp and he still had his claws. He was tall and Ryu frowned.

"Why didn't you tell me you could do this earlier?" She asked.

"Didn't want to." He replied with a shrug. "Now let's do this, shall we?" Kurama started attacking her and she did so in retaliation.

Hours passed and Ryu was on her back, panting. As they were fighting, Kurama had also been teaching her new things. He had already gone back into the mindscape and left her alone in the Forest of Death. She was absolutely exhausted.

Mix-matched eyes filled with panic suddenly appeared in her vision and with a soft smile, "Shishou." Relief flooded the eyes.

"What were you doing out here? Everything is completely destroyed." Wolf asked curiously.

"Fighting." Ryu replied vaguely. She tried to sit up but gave a grunt of pain and fell back to the floor. Wolf knelt down a picked her up. With his arm under her knees and under her back, he made sure he had a good grip on her before running towards the village.

Ryu stared at Wolf's face and frowned. She reached up brushed her finger against his clothed lips, making him slightly stumble mid-run. "What are you doing, Ryu?" He asked under her finger.

"Sorry, I'm just curious. Because I've been constantly focused on becoming one of the best kunoichi. Being around Sakura made me realize that I'm a girl."

"What do you mean?" Wolf asked. Ryu raised her hand in front of her and made it into a fist.

"I can easily make the ground crack into many different pieces without breaking a sweat, and because I live with Naruto, my sense that I am a girl has been blurred. I guess, I'm just warming up to her is all." Ryu paused. "So I got curious on how you look like under the mask, shishou."

Wolf slowed down his running and eventually stopped. They were at the edge of the forest now. He gently set Ryu against a tree and made sure his back was to the fence and he was facing her. He knelt down in front of her and reached up. He hooked his finger on the edge of his cloth mask and hesitated.

Ryu stared at Wolf with surprise. "Shishou! You don't have to show me if you're not comfortable with it! I was just being curious." Wolf shook his head.

"I trust you." He pulled the mask down and dropped it when it passed his chin, it fell around his neck. Ryu was just in awe. He was incredibly handsome. With a narrow but strong jaw-line and his lips were...Ryu trailed off in her thoughts, a blush raised to her cheeks. Wolf pulled up the cloth mask to cover his face once again.

"Thank you, shishou." Ryu said. Wolf stared into her eyes and reached up to ruffle her hair. He picked her up once again and headed towards the village.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

During the next few days, Ryu avoided looking at Kakashi at any cost. They were standing in the Hokage office with Naruto complaining about the D-rank missions and Ryu was silently agreeing with him.

Sarutobi observed the team in front of him. Naruto was being Naruto and Sasuke had yet to change, still with his emotionless face. Sakura was still fangirling over Sasuke however, his two ANBU intrigued him. Kakashi was impassive though his stature was tense, like he was worried. Ryu was blatantly trying very hard not to look at Kakashi.

Sarutobi sighed, he shook his head. "Fine, fine Naruto. We'll give your team a C-rank mission. You will be bodyguards on a journey. Send him in." Everyone turned to the door and watched expectantly. The door slid open and an old man opened the door, he was also holding a bottle of alcohol.

"What the..a team of snotty brats?" He chugged some more beer down. "And you, with the idiotic look on your face, you expect me to believe that you're a ninja?" Silence filled the room. 'Shit!' Kakashi thought, lunging for Ryu.

Ryu snarled and her eyes became red, like Kurama's. Her hair flaring out exactly like the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. "Don't you dare insult my brother, dattebane!" Kakashi caught a hold of Ryu and held her tightly. "Let me go, Kakashi-baka, dattebane!" She snarled. Wiggling around and trying to get out of his grip.

The old man started introducing himself but Ryu wasn't paying attention, she was still trying to get out of Kakashi's grip. Suddenly, she remembered the earring and sent a large amount of chakra to the earring, making Kakashi flinch, loosening his grip on Ryu. She lunged at Tazuna, knocking Sasuke and Sakura out of the way before she landed on the floor with a heavy weight on her.

"Sorry, this one is a bit feisty." Kakashi said, apologizing to Tazuna who was slightly frightened. "We'll be accepting the mission. You three, go get ready." Kakashi said to Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. "Also, Tazuna-san, please be careful with what you say around her." He said.

With nods from the three, the room was cleared of the four and Kakashi's attitude instantly changed. Ryu recognized it easily. "Let me up, shishou, dattebane!" She snarled. Kakashi paused.

"Shishou? I'm your sensei." He replied. Ryu snorted.

"Oh, drop the act. I'm not an idiot, dattebane!"

"Calm down and I'll let you up." He said, with all seriousness.

"No."

"Then you won't be getting up." Kakashi replied. Ryu stopped struggling and with a sudden movement, red chakra flared up and reached for Kakashi. "You wouldn't dare." The chakra stopped, and faded. Kakashi felt the fight in her fade away and he stood up. Ryu moved to a sitting position. He looked down on her with disapproval.

"I'm sorry, shishou." Ryu whispered. Her head between her knees.

"I thought I taught you to not let your emotions gets control over you. I'm disappointed. Just because you are acting as a genin, it doesn't mean that you can throw away all the lessons I taught you." He said, harshly.

Sarutobi observed the two. They were rather close for teacher and student. He wondered if he made a good decision or not. Ryu blinked back her tears. She stood up.

"I'm going to go get my stuff together now…" She said, with a dull voice. Kakashi winced at it and grabbed her shoulder as she walked passed. She shrugged his hand off and then disappeared with a flash of yellow. Kakashi cursed under his breath, and turned to Sarutobi with an apologetic expression then promptly left.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The next morning, they arrived at the gate and Naruto yelled at, "Yea!"

"What are you excited about, Naruto?" Sakura asked. Naruto started looking around in excitement.

"This is my first time leaving the village, I'm a traveller now, dattebayo!" Naruto replied, grinning. Tazuna turned to Kakashi and pointed at Naruto.

"Am I suppose to trust my life with this runt? He's a joke!" He said, without thinking. Kakashi glanced over his shoulder at Ryu but she didn't seem to notice. In fact she had a blank expression on her face, not even a flicker of emotion passed through her eyes.

"He's with me, and I'm a jounin, so you don't need to worry." Kakashi replied, sweat-dropping. Naruto started saying that he would become Hokage and that Tazuna would start respecting him. Tazuna scoffed.

"You can become Hokage ten times over, and you'd still be a loser to me." Naruto lunged towards the man but Kakashi easily caught him with one hand and Naruto struggled to get out of his grip. 'How'd Ryu get out of his grip so easily? Kakashi-sensei had to use two hands for sis!' Naruto thought, but then remembered that Ryu was ANBU and sighed.

"You're suppose to protect the client, not attack him." Kakashi said to Naruto. Naruto ignored him and kept on struggling.

"Let me go, I'll destroy him!" Kakashi glanced over at Ryu and noticed that she completely had ignored the conversation that was happening, slightly worrying him. Ryu looked up and glared at the trees, right at the two hidden mist ninjas. Her training under Wolf was not for naught. Her tracking skills were close to being on par with his. Her sense of smell, being just slightly lower.

Sakura had asked Kakashi if the Land of Waves had any ninja and he unleashed a lecture of the ninja and how important the kage of each village was and then Sakura and Naruto doubted that the old man was really that important.

"Hey! You all just doubted the Hokage didn't you?" Kakashi asked, slightly in a scolding tone. Sakura and Naruto both shook their heads furiously. "Don't worry. C-rank missions don't have any ninja battles in them." He said, placing his hand on Sakura's head.

"Then we won't be meeting any foreign enemy ninjas?" Sakura asked. Kakashi chuckled.

"Not likely." Ryu softly snorted to herself. 'There's already two of them following us.' She thought.

'**To bad we can't slip off to deal with them. Your dreaded shishou would notice.' **Kurama replied. They walked over a bridge and a couple minutes later, Ryu noticed a puddle on the road and narrowed her eyes. '**There hasn't been rain for a while.' **Kurama observed. Ryu nodded and tensed up, moving her hand and casually keeping it near her kunai bag.

Two ninjas came from the puddle and instantly wrapped chains around Kakashi. Ryu had a kunai instantly out and ready. She dropped to a battle-ready stance but met Kakashi's eyes. He silently told her not reveal her true abilities and act like a genin before the two ninjas pulled and 'ripped' Kakashi apart. Ryu simply snorted silently.

The two ninjas came behind Naruto. "Now it's your turn." Naruto froze up and stared in fear. Sasuke instantly leapt up in the air, taking out a shuriken and kunai, first throwing the shuriken, pinning the chain to a tree and throwing the kunai in the middle of the shuriken making sure the chain would be harder to pull free. "What?!"

Sasuke landed on on the arms and placed both of his hands on either one and kicked both of the ninjas in the jaw, Naruto just watching in awe. The chain popped off and one of them ran behind Naruto aiming for him. The other ran towards Sakura and Tazuna. Ryu made a quick decision and leapt towards the one running towards Sakura and Tazuna, landing a chakra-infused kick on his side, sending him flying a couple meters.

After kicking the ninja, Ryu quickly turned to the one that had headed towards Naruto, ready to quickly Hiraishin to him but saw that Kakashi had the ninja in his grip. "Hi." Kakashi simply said. Sakura had an expression of happiness, Sasuke had one of annoyance and Naruto had one of awe. Ryu just simply yawned, making sure the other one wouldn't sneak up on them.

Kakashi went over to Naruto. "I'm sorry for not helping you earlier, Naruto. I didn't expect you to freeze up like that." He walked over to Sasuke. "Good job, Sasuke, and you too Sakura." Kakashi nodded at Ryu and she shrugged. He looked over to the ninja a couple meters away and stared. He had blood on his mouth and seemed to have been holding his side before he passed out.

Using ANBU code, Ryu whispered saying that she probably broke a couple bones and bruised a couple organs. She knew he would be able to hear her so shrugged after. Sasuke turned to Naruto with a smirk.

"Hey." He said to catch Naruto's attention. "You're not hurt are you? Scaredy-cat."

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, about to lunge at Sasuke. Kakashi quickly told Naruto to stop.

"These ninja have poison on their claws, stop moving that causes the poison to spread quicker. We'll have to open the wound to let it bleed out." He said, looking at Ryu and silently telling her to do that as he went over to get the other ninja. "Tazuna."

"Yea, what?" The old man answered.

"We need to talk." Kakashi replied.

Ryu went over to Naruto and told him to sit. She grabbed his hand and took out a kunai. "This is going to hurt, Naruto. I'll try to make it hurt as little as possible." She quickly made a cut and made sure that the Kyuubi in Naruto would not heal it, draining out all the poison quickly.

Kakashi tied the two ninja to a tree. "These two are chunin of the Hidden Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack, they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice."

"How did you know about our ambush?" One of them asked. Ryu snorted audibly and Kakashi glanced at her.

"A puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained in weeks?" Kakashi said in a deadpan voice. Tazuna turned to Kakashi.

"In that case, why did you leave it for the genin to do the fighting?" He asked.

"I could have taken them out quickly but then I would've learned nothing. I had to know who their target was and what they were after." Kakashi replied, glaring with his one eye at Tazuna.

"Hm? What are you getting at?" Tazuna replied roughly. Kakashi turned to face Tazuna.

"This. I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja or, if they were after you, the master bridge builder. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection, from robbers. You didn't say there was ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher. Our task was to simply get you to your destination and protect you while you finish building your bridge. If we knew we would be fielding attack from enemy ninja, we would have staffed different and charged the cost for a B mission. Apparently you have your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission." Kakashi finished.

"We are genin, this is too advanced for our level of training. We should go back. Plus Naruto's hand could become trouble. Back in the village we can get him to a doctor to get taken care of. " Sakura said with worry. Ryu moved her body so that she would hide Naruto's hand from the others and encased her hand with healing chakra, quickly healing the wound and making sure the poison was all gone.

"There's no need. I've taken care of the wound and poison." Ryu said to Sakura.

"What? How'd you know what to do?" Sakura asked.

"During the free time I had, I would read scrolls of medical ninjutsu and how to deal with wounds and poison." Ryu replied, telling a lie with a perfectly straight face. Well, it was half of the truth. Tsunade taught her most of it though.

"Are you sure it's all gone though?" Sakura asked, disbelieving Ryu. Ryu narrowed her eyes in response.

"I'm completely sure, but you can always ask Kakashi-sensei to look." She had a challenging look in her eyes as she said it to Sakura, daring her too.

"It seems like the female is smarter than the male." Sasuke murmured to himself, Ryu turned his glare onto him.

"Care to repeat that, dattebane?" She said with a smile, her hair slowly rising up. Kakashi sighed, he was glad for the verbal tic that Ryu picked up whenever she got annoyed or angry. It told him when to start calming her down.

"We've stayed here long enough let's get moving." Kakashi called out, breaking up the fight before it happened.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They were on a boat and the ride was getting rather long and boring with how they had to row and stay quiet so Ryu tuned out and went into her mindscape. She was sitting in front of Kurama with him rumbling contentedly.

'**So you've come to visit me, kit?' **He asked with affection, lowering his head to nuzzle her softly. Ryu nodded.

'I can't deal with them out there at the moment. Plus, I've always liked spending time with you. Your stories are amazing.' She replied with a bright smile. Kurama chuckled.

Kakashi had finished his questioning with Tazuna and glanced over at his team. Noticing that Ryu was the only one not paying attention and she had a far away look in her eyes. As they passed through the tunnel, the sudden bright sunlight hit them rather harshly after the fog.

Ryu blinked, jolted from the mindscape by the sudden light. They stopped at shore and they all got out. "Now take me to my home." Tazuna demanded.

They walked along and as they were walking, Naruto started throwing kunai around and got yelled at by Sakura and Tazuna, Kakashi just scolding him. Once they say that he had scared a rabbit, Naruto instantly went over to hug it. Ryu narrowed her eyes, noticing that the coat was white and coming to the same conclusion Kakashi had.

It was raised indoors away from light to keep the white coat and it was for a substitution technique. Ryu's finger twitched and she really wanted to not act like a genin but that was impossible. She was on a mission given to her by the Hokage. Plus it was her first as a true ANBU.

Ryu moved closer towards Kakashi with a worried expression on her face, making it similar to a pout. The leaves rustled and Kakashi yelled towards the other four, "Look out!" A giant sword flew towards them and everyone ducked. The sword flew and imbedded itself in a tree, a hidden mist ninja standing on the handle when it did. The ninja glared down at them.

"Well, well. If it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist." Kakashi said, stepping up. Naruto rushed up and Kakashi instantly held a hand, blocking his way. "You're in the way. Get back." Kakashi warned.

"But why?" Naruto asked.

"He's not like those other ninja. He's in a whole other league. If he's out opponent, I'll need this." Kakashi raised his hand to his hitai-ate.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan am I correct? I'm sorry but you'll have to hand over the old man." Zabuza replied in his gravely voice.

"Now, quick, manji formation! Protect the bridge builder! And stay out of this fight!" Kakashi said to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. Ryu had already slipped into the trees, disappearing.

"Huh?" Sakura replied.

"I taught you teamwork. Now it's time to use it." Kakashi moved his Hitai-ate up, revealing his eye. "I'm ready!"

"Well, I get to see the Sharingan in action. This is an honor." Zabuza said, turning to face them. "Kakashi, The Copy Ninja." He snarled out. Ryu snorted quietly. 'More like Wolf, one of the best tracking ninja of all five nations.' She thought to herself. Her shishou had two identities, Kakashi and Wolf.

The one she personally knew best and liked better was Wolf. Thick fog started appearing and jolted Ryu from her thoughts. Her eyes instantly switched to Kurama's, softly glowing red and allowing her to see though not as clearly as she liked since it was a jutsu, but clear enough.

Zabuza started naming the different eight points that could be used to kill. Killer Intent was released by Kakashi and Zabuza. A third one joined into the fray, making Zabuza realize that there had been only three genin guarding the old man, what happened to the other one he had seen earlier?

Ryu appeared behind Kakashi with a Hiraishin kunai in her hand. Her back was facing his and she dropped to a battle-ready stance. With a nod, they parted. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna could only hear and see occasional clangs of steel on steel and sparks.

Ryu landed a hit but Zabuza dissolved into water and he was behind her. "Well, well. This one isn't truly a genin, isn't she?" Ryu turned her head and her Kyuubi eyes stared right into Zabuza's. 'Die!' Her eyes clearly said and her body suddenly sparkled with lightning, Zabuza jumped away before it could touch him however.

Ryu grinned maliciously. She held out the Hiraishin kunai. She threw it at Zabuza and he moved his head to the side easily, dodging it. He scoffed. "It that all you can do?" With a yellow flash, Ryu appeared right in front of him.

"No." Ryu raised a chakra infused fist and was about to punch him in the face with it but he was able to punch her stomach with a powerful fist of his own, his reach longer than her own and she landed in the water. Zabuza landed besides her.

"Water Prison Jutsu!" Water instantly incased Ryu, making it impossible for her to move. Ryu cursed her carelessness and the fog cleared. Showing a trapped Ryu.

"Ryu!" Naruto yelled out in shock. Ryu glanced at Naruto and pouted, she turned to Kakashi and blinked at the fury in his eyes. She flinched. Glad that they weren't directed at her. His eyes connected with Ryu and she read the one command in them.

'Break free and then I'll deal with him myself!' Ryu closed her eyes and focused. She could full Zabuza's chakra in the prison. He was keeping it intact by the hand he had in the prison. All she needed to do was disrupt the flow and the prison would break.

'Kurama!' She called out the him. The fox grinned with his sharp teeth all showing.

'**With pleasure!' **Kurama's chakra leaked into the prison, the malicious chakra attacking the Zabuza's and making it, its own chakra. The prison broke and Ryu flashed over to the kunai that was hidden in Kakashi's kunai bag, coughing up water.

Kakashi and Zabuza started fighting, "Water Dragon Blast no Jutsu!" They said both at once and the dragons clashed spraying water everywhere. Kakashi and Zabuza were locked with blade stopped by kunai and they jumped back, separating.

Kakashi started predicting Zabuza's movement, even going as far as what he would say and unleashed Zabuza's own jutsu on him, "Water Explosion no Jutsu!" A blast of water hit Zabuza full force and he hit a tree.

"It's over." Kakashi said, from the branch above the tree.

"H-how? Can you see the future?" Zabuza asked.

"Yeah...you're going to die." Kakashi raised a kunai, ready to kill Zabuza when two senbon flew and imbedded itself into Zabuza's neck. It was a hunter-nin of the Hidden Mist Village.

"Thank you for giving me an opportunity to kill Zabuza. Your battle is now over. And now I must dispose of this body. Since it seems to be a body with many secrets." The hunter-nin told them, disappearing soon after saying so with Zabuza's body.

"Ha...now we have to get Tazuna back home. Let's go!" Kakashi said, reaching up to bring his hitai-ate down and rest his eye.

"Hahaha! Many thanks, guys! Come over to my house and relax for a while!" Tazuna replied with a wide smile. With a couple steps, Kakashi fell over on the ground, earning the panic of everyone but Ryu.

"Huh? What's wrong?!"

"Kakashi-sensei!"

**I've decided to either update every two to three days or daily, depending on the demand. Please remember, these next few chapters are pre-written! It goes all the way to Chapter 15! I will not be changing any of the content within them, because I think it is unfair to my other readers who have already gotten the other chapters. **

**I want to apologize if Ryu is mary-sueish I had tried my very best to keep her from doing so and kept had that in my mind to try and avoid it, while I had been writing the chapters. Please note that this is also the first fanfiction that I have written with an OC. **

**Any spelling/grammar errors are probably already seen and noted. I will not be correcting them! I constantly re-read my own work to try and catch any errors. **

**Lastly, Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: First Chapter!~ **

**Chapter Three**

Ryu was sitting in the back of Tazuna's house. She couldn't watch as her shishou laid there, saying that the Sharingan tasks his body too hard after over using it. She knew better though. She stood up and started exploring the village. She noticed the lack of food and the prices they were at.

With a sorrowful glance at the children around the village, she wished she could help but she didn't have any money or food on her. So instead, she headed for the forest. She went rather deep and sat in a meadow, closing her eyes and escaped into her mindscape, where Kurama rested.

'**So, you've come again? What's with all these visits? Not that I don't enjoy them.' **Kurama rumbled, opening one eye and watching Ryu. She sighed and shook her head.

'I want to train. Kurama can you help me?' She asked. Kurama opened both eyes and stared at her.

'**Fine.'** He placed a gravity seal on her shoulders. '**Walk around and do any exercise this way.'** And he went to sleep. Ryu's eye twitched and she wanted to yell at the fox but she knew if she woke him up, he would double the gravity.

She stood up and almost fell straight back down. She cursed under her breath and stood up carefully this time. She started walking back but heard Naruto's voice. She popped her head from a tree and noticed that Kakashi was standing vertically upside down on a tree and sweat-dropped.

'Tree climbing?' She thought. Kurama's voice interrupted her thoughts.

'**Ryu, go do that. It'll help your chakra training and with the gravity it should be harder. It'll help you greatly.' **He told her. Ryu sighed and walked over and joined the group.

"Where were you?" Sakura asked. Ryu shrugged and took out a kunai. She chose a tree and focused her chakra on her feet. She took a couple steps back and did a running start, falling off the tree instantly. '**Oh, and since the gravity is increased for you, you need more chakra than that.' **

Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he saw Ryu fall. 'Why did...when I told her to climb a tree the first time I trained her, she walked up with a bored expression on her face, saying that Tsunade had already made sure that her chakra control was to her satisfaction.' He thought to himself.

Ryu glared at the tree in annoyance and focused chakra again. More than she would have usually used and ran up the tree, getting about quarter of the way before the wood cracked under her feet. Kakashi walked up to her and gave her a questioning look.

"Kurama placed gravity seals on me. Doubling it." She replied. He nodded and walked off. Knowing her, after a couple times of getting used to the gravity, she would easily walk up the tree.

That fact remained true, she found the perfect medium and easily walked up the tree. Getting frustrated looks from both Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had walked over to Sakura and asked for a tip and Sasuke refused to do so.

After a couple minutes though, Sasuke walked over to Ryu and with an embarrassed look, he said, "Can you give me some tips?" Ryu blinked and shrugged.

"All I did was test out how much chakra I needed. I started from a low amount of chakra to see the lowest and then high amount to see the amount I couldn't go above, and I built up from low after that. You could do that too, I guess but that would also need already a good chak-" Ryu stopped. She was just about to reveal that she was already ahead of them. "So you could try that, I guess."

Sasuke nodded. "That makes sense. Thank you." He replied and continued on the tree climbing.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was sitting next to Sakura, keeping guard of Tazuna and was rather bored. She started playing with her chakra, making little sparks of lightning at the tip of her finger, making sure that it wouldn't catch the attention of Sakura.

Kakashi walked up to them a couple minutes later. He saw the small sparks and shook his head. He was now walking fine now. She snorted to herself, of course he was. He hadn't need them in the first place. "You two okay here?" Sakura nodded.

"No, it's boring here, dattebane." Ryu growled. Sakura tilted her head to the side.

"Ryu-san, why do you say dattebane only sometimes while Naruto says dattebayo rather often?" She asked. Ryu sighed and turned to her.

"It's a verbal tic that both Naruto and I have. I tried to stop saying it and am successful in doing so only when I'm not annoyed or angry. Whenever I am though, even when I'm excited, I often slip and will start saying dattebane." Ryu frowned at the memory that was the cause of her stop saying dattebane as much.

-Flashback-

"_Dammit! Stop saying dattebane every other sentence! It's annoying me!" Tsunade scolded at Ryu. Ryu looked down._

"_Sorry, Tsunade-baachan, dattebane." She replied._

"_There it is again! I will beat that verbal tic out of you!" Tsunade threatened, raising her chakra infused fists. _

_Ryu spent the next week getting flicked in the head each time she said "Dattebane." Eventually she stopped with a massive bruise on her forehead. Tsunade smiled at her achievement, making Shizune sweat-drop and feel bad for Ryu._

-Flashback Ends-

Ryu blinked and stared out into the water, lost in her thoughts and frowning. She stood up and glanced at Sakura. "Think you can guard him by yourself?" She asked. Sakura nodded. "Tell Kakashi-sensei that I went off exploring."

Ryu walked off and indeed went exploring. deep into the forest. She took out her fox mask and stared at it. She had yet to even have the chance to wear it. She hid it once again when she heard a rustle and took out a kunai.

A black nose popped out from a bush not far from her. Soon after the nose, followed a dog's face. She instantly recognized it. "Pakkun!" The said dog looked up and walked over to Ryu, coming up to her and laying on her lap.

"Kakashi told us to go find you. He seemed like he was worried." Ryu shrugged.

"I'm fine by myself. I can handle being alone for a couple hours." She stared into the trees for a couple minutes. "In fact, I'm going to stay out here for a couple days." She sighed. Pakkun nodded and ran off.

During the next few days, Ryu only came back to Tazuna's house to eat and sleep, then head up to the forest once again, she often saw Kakashi's stare as she passed by but she ignored it. She was constantly training. The defeat by Zabuza had really affected her, even Kakashi could see that but he could do nothing as Kakashi and he had no time to sneak off as Wolf to confront her.

It was one morning when Ryu was walked up when she heard the voices of two men. She instantly ducked into the bushes and suppressed her chakra to the level that Wolf taught her, basically erasing it. She watched as they went by, frowning at their conversation. Ryu stayed in the bushes for a couple minutes later before she started jumping from tree to tree, heading towards the bridge.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was running as fast as she could but all those days training with minimal rest was taking their toll. '**Kit, I'll help you.'** Kurama rumbled, giving Ryu some of his chakra, basically restoring her chakra reserves.

With a burst of chakra, Ryu leapt into the air, just a yellow blur though not using the Hiraishin. She saw the thick mist and cursed out loud. "Dammit! Am I too late?" She launched into the mist and noticed that she couldn't see anything and snarled. She heard the clangs but couldn't see anything.

Ryu sniffed at the air and could smell blood. Mostly Sasuke's, Naruto's and Kakashi's. Ryu borrowed Kurama's eyes and could vaguely see shapes. She noticed Tazuna's and Sakura's shapes and someone behind them. With wide eyes, she threw a hiraishin kunai and flashed to it, blocking Zabuza, however, he was able to cut her side.

"And there is the other one. The one that is not a normal genin." Zabuza noted, his eyes flashing. Ryu winced and turned her head to Tazuna and Sakura then to Kakashi. She silently asked if she could drop the disguise. Kakashi gave her a small nod.

Ryu turned her attention back to Zabuza and grinned. "Please give me a challenge." She dropped all pretences of remaining like a genin and her eyes changed, becoming cold. Her killer intent flared and so did her chakra, shocking Zabuza with the malicious intent of the KI.

"What are you?!" He asked, raising his sword and swinging it at Ryu once more, she blocked it with a kunai.

"I am part of the ANBU of Konoha." She aimed a punch at Zabuza, he jumped back to dodge it, however she was able to graze him. "I am Ryuuko Uzumaki, sister of Naruto Uzumaki, who is one day going to become Hokage and I will support him until he does, being the shadow that kills anybody in his way!" As she was saying so, Ryu had been throwing punches rather quickly, with Zabuza just being able to dodge them.

Zabuza had noted that each fist was infused with chakra, it would be dangerous to even be lightly hit by one. As Ryu was relentlessly punching, Kurama suddenly woke up in her mind. '**Kit! Naruto has tapped into my chakra on his side!' **And true to his word, Ryu felt the malicious, and hateful chakra of Yang Kurama.

Kakashi opened a scroll once he realized the chakra wasn't Ryu's with her panicked expression and smeared his blood in a line across it, then closing it once again and slammed it to the ground, "Summon, Earth Tracking Fang no Jutsu!" Ryu ran towards Naruto but realized as she got there, the chakra lessened and disappeared.

She looked around and noticed Sasuke on the ground, not far away, covered in needles. Ryu rushed to him and encased her hand in healing chakra. She started gently pulling them out and healing him right after. She noticed that they weren't fatal and it only put him into a momentary death but it was better to take them out and heal him.

Ryu started getting annoyed about the amount of needles in Sasuke. "Was this amount necessary?" She sighed. Sakura had ran up to her with Tazuna not far behind. She gasped and tears started streaming down her face.

Ryu rolled her eyes. "He's not dead." Sakura looked up at Ryu questionably. "He's in a momentary death like how Zabuza was. Watch." Ryu flicked Sasuke's cheek, making him twitch his finger. "See? Alive."

Ryu heard the sound of a fighting and turned, surprised to see Zabuza fighting against a massive crowd that held swords with just a kunai in his mouth. She just watched in shock. He was truly a monster. With the ability to do so with many weapons in his back. The only thing she could do was gape her mouth in awe.

She stood up and walked up to Kakashi. "Ne, shishou. Could you ever do that if you got to the point of doing so?" She asked quietly. Kakashi looked at her with his eye like she had grown a mushroom on her head or gone crazy. "What? I was just curious."

"If I had nothing to lose and I knew I was going to die anyways? Probably, pup." He raised his hand to affectionately rub her head. Ryu sighed.

"What's with you and Kurama calling me nicknames? I already have a nickname and it's Ryu!" Kakashi stared at her questionably.

"Kurama calls me kit, and you call me pup. It gets rather annoying!"

"Well, if you don't like it, I'll stop calling you so." Kakashi shrugged. Ryu shook her head.

"No, it's fine, shishou. I'm used to it by now." She sighed, defeated. Kakashi ruffled her hair once again.

"Good, pup."

"Ahh! I'm going to kill you, dattebane!" She snarled, raising her fists and mock punching Kakashi which he easily caught and threw her over his shoulder. "Let me down, dattebane!" She yelled at him. Kakashi simply ignored her.

The thugs now that they had killed Zabuza, were threatening that they were going to pillage the city. They ran towards the group of ninja and Tazuna. Of course with Ryu still over Kakashi's shoulder. An arrow landed in front of the thugs running towards them. It was the villagers.

"If you come further into our island, the citizens of this country will stop you with everything we got!" They yelled at the thugs. Naruto smirked.

"I can help! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He said and only created about four clones. Ryu blinked and made the same hand signs.

"Because I think I'm the only one in the group with enough chakra to do so, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" She created hundreds of clones. All smirking and had an evil smile on their face, holding various kunai and shuriken. "Want a good beating, dattbane?" They all said at once.

"No, we don't!" The thugs replied and they ran. The clones poofed and Kakashi set Ryu on the ground. He walked up to Zabuza.

"It looks like it's over, Kakashi." Zabuza stated, laying on the ground.

"Yes." Kakashi replied.

"Kakashi...I have a request."

"What is it?"

"I want...to see his face." Kakashi reached up and covered his Sharingan once again.

"Sure." Kakashi knelt down and made sure he had a secure hold onto Zabuza's body and carried him over to Haku, gently setting him down. Then it started snowing.

"Thanks Kakashi." Zabuza moved his hand to touch Haku's face. "If I could...I would like to go to...the same place...as you." He said softly.

"He was born in a snowy village." Naruto said, crying.

"I see...He was a boy as pure as snow." Kakashi stated.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Two weeks passed and they were back at Konoha. They had buried Zabuza and Haku. The bridge finished and the villagers named it "The Great Naruto Bridge." Ryu shook her head and smiled. She was currently walking around Konoha. Kakashi and the other three were doing today's mission and she had told Kakashi she had some things to do and he let her off.

She looked up and noticed a bird and headed to the Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Might as well since she had finished her shopping and set her things down in the apartment she shared with Naruto. Ryu found them, well Naruto being chased by Sakura with also Konohamaru and his two other friends.

She narrowed her eyes when Konohamaru bumped into a ninja from the Hidden Village in the Sand. Ryu took a kunai from her bag and readied herself to throw it, in case things came out of hand. The sand ninja grabbed Konohamaru and pulled him up a couple feet in the air.

"That hurt you little piece of shit!" The sand ninja said to Konohamaru.

"Don't we'll get yelled at later." The female one warned the male one.

"I'm sorry, I was just messing around." Sakura said with an apologetic voice.

"Hey fatass! Let him go!" Naruto yelled at the male sand ninja.

"Let's play a little game. I'm bored." The male replied, ignoring Naruto.

"You bastard!" Naruto ran towards the male and Naruto suddenly tripped. Ryu instantly took notice that the male had moved his fingers before Naruto tripped and narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, Leaf Genins are weak." He stated.

"Let go of me." Konohamaru whimpered, shaking in pain from being held at the collar of his shirt.

"Hey you fat pig! If you don't let go of him, I'll make you pay you fatass! Idiot!" Naruto yelled. Sakura instantly put Naruto in a headlock, cutting off his air supply.

"Hey, you're annoying." The male stated. "Basically, I hate midgets. Especially younger ones that are rude...makes me want to kill them." Ryu narrowed her eyes. 'That's my cue!' She thought and threw the hiraishin kunai, making the male jump and drop Konohamaru.

Ryu flashed to it and stared at the male with cold eyes. 'This one is different!' Both the male and female sand ninja thought. "What are you two doing in our village?" She asked calmly, standing up straight. Her face showed curiosity though the air she gave out was one of danger.

'The air around her is sparkling with intense KI!' The male thought. 'It even rivals _him_!' Ryu tilted her head to the side. "Will you answer my question or not?" Her eyes flashed red and they caught it. 'This one isn't a normal genin!'

"You're annoying! I hate show-offs like you the most." The male replied, taking off the thing on his back that he was carrying. Ryu jumped back slightly, getting ready in a battle stance, her eyes alert.

"Hey, you're even going to use Karasu?" The female asked. A new voice piped in.

"Kankuro, stop it." Ryu looked up at the tree. Her instincts instantly flared up and she could Kurama snarling in the back of her mind. '**That one is also a jinchuuriki!' **He snarled. "You're an embarrassment to our village." The new ninja said.

"Ga...Gaara." Kankuro said nervously.

"Losing control of yourself in a fight, how pathetic. Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?" Gaara asked.

"Listen Gaara, They started it and…" Kankuro started saying. Gaara interrupted him.

"Shut up..I'll kill you." They started walking away. Sakura opened her mouth and was about to ask why they were in the village when Ryu stopped her. She shook her head.

"If they're here, it means only one thing." Ryu paused and turned to Sakura. "The Chunin Selection Exam."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

All four of them were once waiting for Kakashi once again and Sakura sighed. "Hey, hey, hey! How can this be allowed? Why does that person ask us to meet and then make us wait?!" She yelled in frustration.

"Yea!" Naruto agreed.

"What about the feelings of a young girl who overslept and didn't have time to blow dry her hair!" She started complaining. Ryu snorted in annoyance.

"Yea! I overslept too! I didn't wash my face or brush my teeth!" Naruto commented. Ryu and Sakura looked at him with a disgusted face.

"That's...nasty." Both Sakura and Ryu said at the same time.

"Morning people!" Kakashi called. "Today, I got lost on the road of life."

"Yea right! Liar!" Naruto and Sakura yelled angrily.

"This might be sudden but...I've nominated you guys for the Chunin Selection Exam." Silence ensued.

"HUH?!" Sakura, Naruto and Ryu said at once. Kakashi held out four slips of paper.

"Here are your applications. Though this is only a nomination. Whether to take the exam is up to the four of you. Those who wish to take it should sign those papers and turn them in at Room 301 by four in the afternoon tomorrow. That is all." Kakashi said and poofed away.

**Thank you for reading this chapter~ **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: First Chapter~**

Ryu was laying down in a field of grass, daydreaming. She had already turned in her application. She had arrived earlier than the others because she had to turn it in separately.

-Flashback-

_Ryu was jumping from roof to roof, quickly heading over to Kakashi's apartment. She held the application furiously in her hand and she had an angry look on her face. The sliding door was open and Kakashi was sitting on the couch. _

_She jumped in and threw a chakra infused fist right at his head and he dodged. "What is the meaning of this, dattebane?! I already took my chunin exam! I'm a jounin, dattebane!" She said furiously at him. He watched with a neutral look on his face, which got her more angry. _

_Kakashi moved his hand and raised it to place it on her head. Affectionately petting her head. It made swing another fist at him. "Why did you just do that, dattebane?!" _

"_You reminded me of a wolf pup that was denied food by her siblings and started growling at them." Kakashi said lazily. Ryu blinked in surprise, her anger deflating. _

"_Your 'chunin exam' is not a true chunin exam. You're going to be an observer and report anything unusual at the end of each day via one of your summons. You have the power in intervene also, but you cannot directly help your genin team-mates with your full power. No healing them either, Ryu. Got it?" He asked. She nodded. "Good." He eye-smiled at her, affectionately rubbing her head again. _

-Flashback Ends-

Ryu stood up and took out her mask from one of her pockets and put it on her. She henged into an older version of herself, about the age of eighteen and made sure she was wearing her ANBU clothing and put on the black robe, making sure her hair was hidden with the hood.

Kurama had made sure that even her voice had changed, but she had yet to know what it sounded like. She quickly ran over to where the first stage of the Chunin Exams would be and bumped into Kakashi, who was standing in front of the door of the room. Ryu grinned.

"Yo, sensei." Kakashi blinked and looked her up and down.

"Nice henge. I'm guessing you basically just look the same but the mask covers your face and the hood, your hair?" He asked. She nodded.

"MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO! I WON'T LOSE TO YOU BASTARDS! YOU GOT THAT?!" Naruto's voice blew out from the closed door. Ryu sweat-dropped and sighed.

"Even I knew it was better not to catch attention to myself when I took the chunin exam." She shook his head. Kakashi stared at her with his one eye with an expression of disbelief.

"That is a lie. Sure, during the first stage you were quiet but the second stage, I remember that you basically had all the other shinobi on your heels." He replied. Ryu winced.

"Hey! That was not my fault! Someone commented on my age and started insulting my skills and the village! It's not my fault I got pissed and released Kurama to come out and play…" She trailed off. Kakashi sighed and shook his head. He started circling Ryu and looking her up and down. "What are you doing?"

"This henge is pretty convincing." He noted. She snorted in reply.

"Of course it is, dattebane." She replied. Kakashi stopped in front of her and stepped forward, she stepped back. He shook his head and turned, walking away. Ryu blinked in surprise and shook her head.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu's part of the exam wouldn't start until the second part. She was already at the area, twirling a kunai around her finger. In fact, she was sitting on top of the fence. The Forest of Death was basically her second home with how often she trained here with Wolf.

Anko was directing the chunin on how to set up some of the things she needed as Ryu watched. "Will you stop just watching, Fox? What would Wolf do if he saw you just sitting there?" Anko called up, turning and glaring at Ryu.

"Wolf would be sitting here with me, what are you talking about?" Ryu replied. Anko sighed.

"That's true isn't it. He would just be sitting there. Dam you prodigies!" She said with a roll of her eyes. Ryu laughed."Go scout out the Forest or something. Don't just sit there. The chunin that are helping me are starting to curse out ANBU because of how you're just sitting there." Anko scolded.

"Well, would it help if I stopped the henge?" Ryu asked. Anko shook her head.

"That would make the chunin angry that someone younger than themselves got into ANBU." Ryu sweat-dropped.

"But I really don't want to scout out the Forest again. It's basically my second home!" She argued. Anko stared at her in disbelief.

"W-what? Even with all those dangerous creatures in there?"

"Yea. Wolf often took me in there to train." Ryu shrugged. "Most of them are too weak. The only one that give me any challenge are the tigers because at least, they have _some_ speed." Anko just turned and walked off. 'Those two aren't even human, why am I surprised?' Anko thought to herself. 'After all, they _are_ called demons for a reason.'

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Anko had gone to get the genin and Ryu had resorted to glancing over some old scrolls of hers. Ryu could hear the sound of voices get closer and glanced behind her at the gate. She could see Anko arriving with the mass of genin behind her.

Ryu stood up and jumped over the fence, quickly hiding herself in the shadows of the Forest. "Welcome to the stage for the second test, Practice Area 44. Also known as…The Forest of Death!" Anko said with an evil sneer.

The genin stared up into the Forest, in shock. "This is creepy…" Sakura murmured.

"You'll soon find out...why it's called The Forest of Death!" Anko smirked. Naruto snorted.

"You think that scares me?! That's nothing! I'm not afraid!" He replied. Anko chuckled.

"Yea. You're spirited." She took a kunai out from her sleeve and threw it at Naruto, cutting his cheek. She appeared behind him. "Kids like you are quickly killed." She laughed and licked the bleeding cut on his cheek. Anko suddenly felt a flare of intense KI.

She knew _exactly_ who it was and glared into the direction of it. 'So this kid is her brother, huh?' Anko thought. She started explaining the goal of the second exam and Ryu quickly lost interest. She would be silently following Team 7 the whole exam, though never intervening.

Ryu quickly grew bored and started twirling around the kunai again. She was sitting on a branch of one of the trees, completely suppressed her chakra. She had no need to physically go to where Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke was. She was completely familiar with their chakra and was watching them that way.

Out of no where, a team of genin jumped through and landed on her branch. Ryu stared and they stared back. They readied their weapons and Ryu shook her head. "I'm an observer, not one of the other genin down there. Can't you tell by my mask?" She drawled. She waved them on and they hesitantly went on their way, looking back every so often.

"What if they had attacked you, even if you told you that?" Wolf asked, standing on the other side of the tree on another branch.

"I would have dodged their attacks easily and hirashin somewhere else of course." Ryu replied. Wolf flashed to stand in front of Ryu.

"Is this where you're going to watch them at?" He asked. Ryu nodded.

"I can sense every little thing from this spot. You taught me that, shishou." Wolf's eyes softened, remembering the first time he was assigned to teach Ryu.

-Flashback-

_Wolf had been called to the Hokage's office and he was a bit confused on why. He had already submitted his mission report and he knew that his reports were always completed fully. As he was standing in front of the desk, Wolf knew that the Hokage was up to something. He wasn't grinning exactly, but he had an evil spark in his eye. _

"_Wolf, I'm going to take you off the mission list and give you something that requires you to spend more time in the village." Wolf frowned from under his mask but didn't say a thing, however disapproval radiated from his being, making the Hokage chuckle. _

"_It won't be an easy job, mind you. As I was going through the list of ANBU, I was trying to decide who was the best for this and I knew you were the right one." He grinned. "Send her in!" He called out. Wolf froze. 'Her?' _

_A girl at the age of eight with long blonde hair, tied into a single high ponytail walked into the Hokage's office. "Introduce yourself to your new shishou." Hokage said to the kid. The girl turned and looked Wolf up and down with narrowed eyes. _

"_Uzumaki Ryuuko, age eight, chunin." She said simply. Wolf blinked. 'Age eight? Isn't she too young?' Wolf turned to the Hokage._

"_I want you to teach her all your skills. She is going to be in ANBU and I want you to be the one teaching her." Wolf's disapproval radiated intensely. The Hokage sighed in defeat. "She threatened to burn my novels and no one was able to catch her." _

'_She indeed is Sensei's daughter.' Wolf thought. He knelt down to her height. "Wolf, but you can call me shishou." Her eyes sparkled in excitement. _

"_Okay, shishou!" _

-Time Skip-

"_Shishou, why are the other shinobi scared of you? I heard them call you demon." Ryu asked. Wolf paused and sighed. It had been two years since he started training her and he had already told her his real name by then. _

"_Because the Hatake family has demon blood in it. To be specific, the demon blood of a wolf demon. It's the reason why the Hatake line has wolf traits in it. You already know some of them that I have." Wolf explained. _

"_Oh, so it's not the same reason why Naruto and I are called demons?" Ryu asked. Wolf jolted in shock. It was the first time she had mentioned anything of the Kyuubi within her and Naruto. _

"_No, it's not." Wolf replied. Ryu nodded. _

"_Okay." _

"_Ryu, are you in danger of ever losing control of the Kyuubi?" He asked cautiously. She shook her head._

"_No, Kurama and I are on good terms. We got into an agreement about it. It's Naruto we have to worry about. Since his half carries more hate." She shrugged. "I can't help him on it though. He has to deal with it himself. Earn the respect of his half." Wolf nodded in understanding._

"_If you ever need anything, you know you can come to me right?" He told her and she smiled._

"_Of course, shishou! I trust you completely!" _

-Flashback Ends-

Ryu suddenly stood up, surprising Wolf. "What's wrong?" He asked. She started jumping towards the direction of where Team Seven was.

"I feel a weird chakra near where Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke are." She said quietly to Wolf, who was alongside her. She reached the area and stopped, blending into the shadows. Narrowing her eyes at the scene below. Sasuke and Sakura were shaking.

Ryu could feel the killer intent from the other genin standing a couple feet away from them. 'This...isn't normal KI!' She thought, turning her gaze to Wolf and he nodded, confirming her thoughts.

Sasuke took a kunai out and stabbed his leg, overtaking the fear and quickly running away to cover with Sakura. Wolf and Ryu followed silently. They were waiting for the 'genin' to show who they actually were. A snake came down and attacked them. 'Snake?' Ryu thought.

"You guys shouldn't relax for even a moment. Prey should always be trying their best to run away...in the presence of a predator, that is…" The genin remarked, his tongue not of a normal length. He started heading towards the two when shurikens stopped him.

It was Naruto. Ryu breathed a sigh of relief. "Shishou, when should we intervene?" She asked Wolf quietly.

"Not now." He replied. Naruto had punched Sasuke for trying to give the enemy the scroll they had, arguing that how could they know if the other guy would leave them alone even after they gave him the scroll.

The other genin laughed. "Naruto, you are correct! Since I can just kill you and take the scroll."

"Shut up!" Naruto snarled, running full speed at the enemy.

"No! Run away! Naruto!" Sasuke yelled at him.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Ryu and Wolf blinked. It was a giant snake. 'Just as I thought!' Ryu flashed to Naruto, since he always had a hiraishin kunai in his kunai bag and kicked him out of the way and with a chakra infused fist, punched the snake's mouth closed.

"Who?!" The enemy said in shock. The dust settled and it revealed only a fox mask and black cloak.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Anko was standing in front of three bodies, dead to be exact. "After examining their papers and personal items, they seem to be the Hidden Grass shinobi who were entered in the exam, but...as you can see...they have no faces. They are blank, as if they were melted off." Anko stared in horror. She knew exactly who could have done this.

"Show me the pictures of these three!" She demanded. The pictures were given and she recognized them. 'So at that time…He already..' She thought. "This is bad! You guys go report this to the Hokage! Send some ANBU captains to the Forest of Death! I'm going after them right now!" Anko yelled at the chunin.

'Hopefully, Fox would have already noticed something was off and gone after it. Hopefully, she wasn't too late and he had yet to act on anything.' Anko thought, heading into the Forest instantly.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu and the other were matching blow for blow. She was also making sure the giant snake wouldn't be able to get close to the others. 'Tch!' She thought, with this giant snake in the way, I can't go all out!'

Naruto was angry and the malicious chakra of the nine-tails leaked out of him, distracting Ryu and allowing enemy shinobi to hit her. Ryu went flying and landed heavily on a tree. The enemy caught Naruto, and he was struggling to get out of the disgusting tongue.

"Hehe...so the Kyuubi-brat is still alive. When your emotions are heightened, the power of the Kyuubi overflows...very interesting." He lifted Naruto's jacket and shirt. "Oh my, the seal is visible…" A five part seal was placed on top of the seal.

"Sasuke! Naruto is..!" Sakura yelled, panicking. He threw an unconscious Naruto to the side and Sakura saved Naruto from falling down with a kunai pinning his jacket to the tree. Sasuke started attacking. He was able to trick him and burned his face.

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasuke asked furiously.

"My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again...then survive and pass the exam." Orochimaru replied. "Of course, defeating my men, the sound nin trio on the way."

"What the hell are you talking about?! We'd never want to see your face again!" Sakura replied.

"Hehe...it won't go that way." Orochimaru replied, doing a hand sign then his neck stretching and he was heading toward to where Sasuke was. A yellow flash appeared besides both Sasuke and Sakura and it flashed away again with both of them. Orochimaru froze in shock. 'I thought the Yellow Flash of Konoha was dead!'

They appeared a couple trees away, Sakura on the right and Sasuke on the left of an ANBU. 'It's the dam Fox masked one again!' Orochimaru thought. "You two may rest now. Go get the other one. Don't worry about him. _We_ have him." The ANBU told the both of them.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked. The ANBU turned towards them and reached up to pull the mask off slightly, revealing the familiar face whiskers and blue eyes that looked exactly like Naruto's. It was Ryu.

"W-what? You're….?!" Sakura asked, shocked. Ryu sighed, she put on the mask again.

"I'll explain later." She replied simply, her attention turning to Orochimaru. "Now that there is no more distractions, let's go all out, shall we….Wolf?" Ryu called out, a grin in her voice.

"Agreed." Another voice said from behind Orochimaru. The two ANBU engaged in a fight with Orochimaru, though they were just fighting to stall time for more ANBU to come as backup. Sakura and Sasuke stared in awe at the fight.

They were nothing more than blurs, with just flashes of sparks and clangs of steel against steel. Sparks of lightning could be seen and some blood was sprayed. Wolf and Ryu landed where Sasuke and Sakura were sitting.

"You two, go get Naruto from the tree and go! Your exam is still going on." Ryu said to them. "Your scroll was burned but you can always get another and get both. Your exam has not ended yet, so scram!" She snarled harshly at them, scaring them and they did as they told, getting Naruto and running towards the Forest.

"Hmm, you two are just stalling for backup..I can tell...so that is my cue to escape." Orochimaru observed, disappearing into the tree. Ryu cursed and was about to start tracking him down when Wolf stopped her.

"No, we did what we could. Let the others take over. You still need to do your duty of watching the team. Let's go find them shall we?" Wolf suggested. Ryu sighed and nodded, heading towards the direction that Sakura and Sasuke went with Naruto.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu arrived where Sasuke and Sakura camped out just in time for the sound ninja that Orochimaru had said that were his men to show up and start attacking the two. Sasuke was tired from the fight with Orochimaru and could do fairly little and Sakura wasn't strong. Ryu was about to leap out and help them when she was held back by Wolf.

She looked back and was about to shrug his hand off when she saw him shook his head. "It's her fight now. You won't always be there to save her." Wolf said reassuringly to Ryu.

"But, those are Orochimaru's men!" Ryu protested.

"If I think they are in any danger, I will let you intervene, okay?" He said softly. Ryu sighed and nodded and just watched the fight. Ryu watched and almost jumped down a couple times, especially when the girl had grabbed Sakura's hair and held on to it. Sakura took a kunai and cut her hair off.

Ryu stared in shock, remembering something similar.

-Flashback-

"_Ne, shishou. Do you think I should cut my hair? I mean I keep it in a ponytail, but what if it gets in the way?" Ryu asked Wolf. She was currently brushing her hair from leaves and sticks because of their training earlier. _

_Wolf shook his head and started helping her picking the leaves and sticks out, his hands moving much faster than Ryu because he could actually see where they were. "You can do whatever you want. Most ANBU kunoichi like to keep their hair short, but honestly, I prefer long hair on females." Ryu fell silent, soaking in what Wolf had said. _

_It was silent for a couple minutes as Ryu sat there, allowing Wolf to quickly rid her hair of the leaves and sticks. "There, all done." He said quietly when he finished. Ryu quickly pulled her hair into a ponytail. _

"_Thank you, shishou. I think I'll keep my hair long for now." She smiled. He ruffled her hair, affectionately. _

-Flashback Ends-

By the time Ryu had already came out of her thoughts, it seemed like another genin team from Konoha went to the defense of Sakura, who was now bleeding steadily. The attack formation they had was good, however it failed.

'It would have worked on a genin level team but those three are not genin!' Ryu thought. She shrugged out of the black ANBU robe and pushed it to Wolf. "What are you doing?" He asked. Ryu took off the fox mask and held it out to Wolf. He took it and watched as Ryu dropped the henge and returned to her twelve year old self.

"I won't just stand here as my team-mates are being killed off one by one! I'm going in. Not as Fox, but as Uzumaki Ryuuko!" She said, her blue eyes blazing with a challenge, daring Wolf to stop her. He sighed and shrugged, letting her go.

Ryu jumped down from the branch, landing in front of Sakura. She cracked her knuckles and grinned. "Sakura, can I ask to make sure it was those people over there that did this to you?" Ryu asked, smiling. However the killer intent she released said otherwise.

Dosu stared in shock. 'Where did this one come from?' He thought. 'Orochimaru warned us about two ANBU in a Fox and Wolf mask to look out for but...who is this?!' He thought. Sakura nodded at Ryu's question and Ryu turned to fully face the sound nin.

Her smile dropped and she became serious, releasing her chakra, no longer suppressing it. Dosu felt the shear large amount of the chakra and it's malicious intent. "Her chakra is too large!" He said in surprise.

"Dosu! No need to be afraid of this brat!" The one that controlled air pressure said with confidence.

"No, Zaku! Don't you feel that chakra?!" Dosu yelled out. Zaku pointed both hands at Ryu and released a large amount of air, dust flew and completely covered the area. The dust cleared and Zaku grinned in triumph. After all, there was no one standing in the impact.

"Yes! I've blown the brat away!" He said, grinning.

"Eh? Blown whom away, dattebane?" Ryu said from behind Zaku. He turned his head and stared in horror before Ryu kicked him, not even bothering to infuse chakra in the kick, sending him flying. Ryu appeared behind him once again, just a yellow blur. She grabbed his arms and pulled it behind him, placing her foot on his back.

Her eyes were red, having allow Kurama suggest her what to do. "So you're proud of these arms of yours, dattebane?" She grabbed the arms tighter and pulled, her foot pushing the other way on his back. Sasuke, Sakura and the other Konoha genin stared in shock as a loud snap! was heard. Wolf was still watching up on the tree branches, with a neutral expression, knowing that this was not even close to what Ryu could do.

Ryu turned towards Dosu. "So you're the last one. Will you give me some fun?" She smiled. Ryu cracked her neck and walked towards him. 'Just who is this? This isn't Ryu!' Sakura thought. Sasuke was still staring in pure shock at Ryu.

"Stop. That's enough." Sasuke called out to Ryu. Ryu turned her head and her eyes returned back to their normal blue. Though she still turned to Dosu. She saw the fight leave him.

"You are strong." He remarked. "We can't defeat you at this time...Here's a gift for you. Please let us leave." He had took out one of the scrolls that they needed to pass and placed it on the floor and left with his two team-mates.

Ryu turned to Sasuke and Sakura. She walked towards them and sat in front of them. "How's Naruto?" She asked.

"He's unconscious but fine, I think." Sakura replied. Ryu sighed.

"I wasn't suppose to help you in this exam at all. So I can't heal you two. Sakura, you have earned my respect though. I hope we can become friends. I know you two have questions about me, but I will tell you this. Finish this exam and pass, then I will answer any questions you two have." Ryu said. Both of them nodded and Ryu stood up and disappeared.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was back in her ANBU clothes and henge. She was heading her way towards the center of the Forest, choosing to wait there for Team Seven. Wolf was besides her as she jumped from tree to tree.

He had not said anything when he handed back her things. Not even scolding her. In fact, she could sense approval radiating from him. Ryu grinned and sent her feelings that they would pass, mentally to Team Seven.

**Thank you for reading! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters of Naruto! (I wish I owned Kakashi of course) I only own Ryu and where my plot begins and scenes added! **

Wolf and Ryu arrived at the center Tower and noticed there was a commotion in the room they were watching whoever entered the Tower. Both of them entered the room. Anko turned and noticed Wolf and Ryu and greeted them.

The other two ANBU greeted them also, slightly surprised that they were here. They had never received any information that they had been dispatched. "What are you two doing here?" One of them asked. "Were you sent by the Hokage also?"

Wolf shook his head. "No, we were already within the Forest. We had some other things to do. Which we finished and decided to head here. What's going on?"

"There's a group of genin that finished the exam already. Completely killing the old record of four hours. Look, theres the one with no scratches at _all_. Not even dirt on his clothes." Anko replied. Ryu snorted. Everyone looked at her questionably.

"Of course there isn't. He's a jinchuriki. By looking at his team-mate's forehead protectors, they're from the Hidden Village in the Sand. And if I remember correctly, Sunagakure had the one-tail, Shukaku. So he must be Shukaku's jinchuriki." Ryu shrugged. Wolf reached up and rubbed her head affectionately even though she was about as tall as chin with the henge.

"How do you even know he's a jinchuriki in the first place?" Anko asked. Ryu narrowed her eyes though no one would be able to see it with her mask on.

"I met him when I was off-duty and was able to deduce so because of the black circles around his eyes. Those are signs that someone is a jinchuriki to Shukaku, because the jinchuriki can not sleep at all or he will take the chance to on a rampage and kill anyone in sight." She replied.

"So we'll have to watch out for him." Anko sighed. Ryu nodded. Wolf sighed and shook his head and slung his arm around Ryu's shoulder.

"It looks like we aren't needed anymore, so we'll be off." He said, pulling Ryu along, and out of the room. As they were walking down the hall, they passed the sand genin team. Ryu and one that they had been talking about met eyes, even through her mask, and her eyes flashed red, to Kurama's and it said a challenge.

Within Gaara, Shukaku woke up and started yelling at him, telling him that, the Fox masked ANBU was a jinchuriki. "You. The Fox masked one. What is your name?" He asked. The other two froze, hoping that their little brother wouldn't kill the ANBU, it would be a direct act of war.

"It is rude to ask one's name without telling theirs first." Ryu replied, turning. Wolf could feel the tension radiating from Ryu. The KI in the hallway rising.

"Gaara of the Sand." He replied simply. Ryu took off the mask and dropped the henge. Recognition flashed through all three of their eyes. It was the abnormal kid they had saw a couple days ago.

"Uzumaki Ryuuko." Ryu replied. She turned and once again applied the henge and the mask back on. 'No wonder she was different, she's in ANBU, even when she's that young!' Kankuro thought. Gaara grinned evilly, he had finally found someone that could give him some real fun.

He decided to test her and slipped some of his sand, slithering towards her, almost grabbing her leg when lightning radiated from her intensely. The heat of the lightning was intense and it was incredibly bright. The sand that had been going to grab Ryu, had melted into glass. She turned her head and Gaara could see the boredom in her eyes.

"I don't think you'd want to do that. I have no guarantee that I won't retaliate and I don't think you would want a war." Ryu said and walked away.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"Ah, they passed." Ryu said out of no where. She was no longer in her ANBU clothing or her henge and Wolf had changed to Kakashi. They were in a room and Ryu was laying on a couch with Kakashi leaning against the wall, reading an Icha Icha book.

"How do you know?" Kakashi asked. Ryu pointed to her head.

"I can maintain a mental link with Naruto for any period of time. I could even talk to him if I wanted to. From the moment we left, I established the link and watched quietly. Only I can currently do so. Since I use Kurama to establish the mental link. The Kyuubi within Naruto is still asleep." She replied. "Anyways, did you even have any doubts they wouldn't pass, sensei?"

"Some, but that doesn't matter now does it? I had full confidence in my team. I trained them myself after all." Kakashi said, shrugging.

"I bet if you trained them how you trained me, you would have no doubts, right?" Ryu smirked. Kakashi chuckled.

"I was mostly more worried for the other genins during your chunin exams. The routine I trained you in was how I trained myself. Plus with that Tsunade-hime trained strength of yours even without the chakra is incredibly scary." He shook his head and closed the book. "Let's go, shall we? I have to be there and I'm bringing you with me."

"Well I can't stand with the genin that passed nor can I stand with the group of Sensei. So what am I suppose to do, hide behind you like a wimpy brat? After all, I look like a genin at my age. The other Sensei are going to ask why I wasn't with the others. You can't very well tell them, I'm a jounin can't you?" Ryu replied. Kakashi shrugged.

"I don't care. Let them think whatever they want. I'm taking you with me anyways." He started heading towards the room they had decided to greet the genin teams that passed with Ryu following him.

"Sensei, you're unreasonable." Ryu whined, walking fast to catch up to Kakashi. He stopped suddenly, making Ryu bump into his back. "Ow! Don't suddenly stop out of no where, Kakashi-baka, dattebane!" She said rubbing her nose. He crouched down and suddenly flung her over his shoulder, making her face hit his back once again. "Oi! That hurt!" She yelled, swinging her fists against his back.

Kakashi ignored her and entered the room, standing next to Gai. The others look at him curiously, since he had Ryu still over his shoulder and with her struggling to get out of his grip. Anko face-palmed at the two.

"Your team isn't too bad, maybe they were lucky. But as long as my team is around, getting any farther is impossible." Gai said to Kakashi. Ryu had stopped struggling and Kakashi put her down. She stood besides him, at attention and was quiet. "Since from now it's all about real ability, well with youth there are sweet times and there are sout times, eh Kakashi…" Gai went, looking at Kakashi.

"Huh? You say something?" Kakashi replied. Ryu stifled a giggle.

"Hokage will explain the third test! Listen carefully!" Anko called out, the twenty one genin turned and listened. Ryu lost interest and started a conversation with Naruto.

'_Yo! Naruto, are you okay?'_ She asked, her face showing worry which Naruto saw.

'_Yea! I'm totally fine. Don't you worry about me, Ryu!' _Naruto grinned and did a thumbs up. '_What were you doing as we were doing the exam?' _He asked.

'_Ah, I was here and there. I was mostly hanging out with Kakashi-sensei though.'_ Ryu replied, shrugging.

'_Did you get to see his face?!'_ Naruto asked excitedly. Ryu shook her head sadly.

'_No. I didn't get him to take his mask off. Maybe we can do it as a team!' _ She suggested. Ryu glanced up at Kakashi and suddenly a blush appeared on her cheeks. What she said was true, she didn't get to see his face _today._ But it doesn't mean she hadn't seen it before. 'If he walked around without his mask, he would probably have a major fan club.' Ryu thought to herself.

Kakashi looked down at her and tilted his head to the side, slightly. Silently asking her what's wrong. She blinked and waved her hands furiously and shaking her head. Her face becoming even redder.

'_Yea, I think that's a good idea. Let's get Sakura and Sasuke in on it too sometime!' _Naruto replied.

'_Better the chances!' _Ryu smiled. A cough brought Ryu and Naruto out from their mental conversation.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama...from here on, as the referee, will you allow me, Gekkou Hayate…"

"By all means." Sarutobi replied.

"Hello everyone, I'm Hayate. Um...before the third test, there's something I'd like you to do…" Hayate coughed then continued on. "It's a preliminary for the third test to decide who gets to participate in the main test." The genin started murmuring with each other.

"Preliminary?! What do you mean?!" Shikamaru called out.

"Sensei, I don't understand this preliminary but why aren't all the people here allowed to participate in the next test?" Sakura asked.

"Umm...because the first and second test may have been too easy this year...We have a bit too many people remaining. According to the chunin exam rules, we must have a preliminary test and reduce the amount of participants for the third test." Hayate replied.

"No way…" Sakura said with slight disappointment.

"Umm...so anyway...those who are not feeling well...those who feel like quitting after these explanations..please come forward now. Since we will be starting the preliminary immediately."

"What?! Right now?!" Kiba yelled out in surprise. Ryu lost interest again and started bothering Kakashi by sending small amounts of chakra to the earring he had given her. He ignored her. So she increased the amount of chakra each time, however making it small enough to not alert the other jounin or chunin around.

Ryu yawned and suddenly an electronic score-board was revealed. The first battle was Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Sasuke had barely won, having to have used Lee's technique that he had copied to win, since the opponent had nearly drained all his chakra out. Sasuke sat back, almost falling flat on his back when Ryu stopped his falling by appearing next to him, her legs stopping him from falling. Kakashi had the same idea but Ryu had simply just been faster. "Nice one." Ryu said.

"That doesn't feel like a compliment coming from you." Sasuke remarked. Ryu laughed.

"Well, it should. After all, I'm technically your senpai." She replied. He fell silent. The medical team came up to them.

"Uchiha Sasuke, let the medical team treat your injuries now." One of them said. Kakashi appeared besides Ryu.

"You guys aren't needed. We'll take care of him." Kakashi said. The medical team nodded and left. Kakashi helped Sasuke up to where they were staying out of the way for the participants to battle. Ryu knelt down in front of Sasuke and started glancing over his wounds.

"Sensei, do you want me to just bandage them, or…?" Ryu asked, trying to coax Sasuke to lift up his shirt so she could finish the examination. Sasuke had a blush on his cheeks and refusing as hard as he could, after all he was the one facing Ino and Sakura and could see their glares at Ryu.

"Just bandage them." Kakashi replied. Ryu nodded, but she suddenly felt an intent KI directed at her and Sasuke and she quickly turned her head and her eyes connected to someone on the other side. The KI showed an image of her head flying and she shook it off, sending KI to match. One with Kurama's lying underneath hers. Her attention turned back to Sasuke.

"Oh come on, stop being a wimp and lift up that shirt, dattebane!" She said furiously at Sasuke, scaring him and he slowly lifted his shirt and Ryu quickly finished her examination, taking out bandages from one of her pouches and quickly bandaging him. "There, you should be fine until I can properly heal you." Ryu said low enough for only Sasuke to hear.

Two matches had already gone by and Ryu glanced up at the board to see who was next and noticed Sakura's name up. Ryu tilted her head to that and shrugged. Kakashi sweat-dropped.

"Ryu, watch carefully." He said to her. She turned her head and stared at him.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because those two are a great example on rivalry. Having a rival can inspire you to become stronger and stronger. Because you are ahead of the others your age, you don't have a rival." Kakashi said to her. Ryu snorted.

"That's a lie. I do have a rival. My rival just doesn't know that he is my rival." Ryu replied. Kakashi blinked at her questionably.

"Who is your rival?" He asked. Ryu smirked and turned her head.

"You." Kakashi face-palmed.

"I'm your rival? You'll never catch up to me, pup." He said, rubbing her head. "Plus, I already have a self-proclaimed rival." He sighed.

"Oh..him?" Ryu said, glancing over at Gai. She shrugged. Ryu turned back to the battle, and noticed Sakura's opponent was in a heap and Sakura was smirking.

"What? What's with Ino? Plus...Sakura seems strange!" Naruto said. "But this is your chance! Do it, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out.

"To use Shintenshin there...it's over." Kakashi remarked.

"Shintenshin?" Lee asked. "So right now...Sakura is…?" Kakashi nodded.

"Yea, Sakura's mind has been completely taken over by Ino. Ino is inside Sakura. Well, Ino's plan is most likely…" Kakashi trailed off. Sakura-Ino raised her hand and started saying,

"I...Haruno Sakura would like to for…" Naruto interrupted her.

"DON'T! SAKURA-CHAN! YOU'VE COME THIS FAR! IF YOU LOSE TO THAT SASUKE IDIOT...YOU'RE NOT A WOMAN!" Naruto yelled out. Ryu smirked and joined in.

"YEA! REMEMBER, SAKURA! YOU'VE EARNED MY RESPECT! DON'T BELITTLE THE RESPECT I HAVE FOR YOU!" She yelled out also. Kakashi shook his head at both of them. 'Really, when these two get together, even I can't predict what they will do…' He thought.

Sakura-Ino started shaking and she reached up to grab her head. "What is it? You want to forfeit?" Hayate asked Sakura.

"FORFEIT? LIKE HELL I'LL FORFEIT!" She replied. Ino released the jutsu and went back to her body. Ino and Sakura ran at each other, fists raised and knocked each other out.

"Both fighters are unable to continue, this is a double knock out. The 4th preliminary match as no winner!" Hayate announced. Kakashi and Asuma went to get Sakura and Ino. They both set them next to each other on the wall.

"Hey Ino!" Shikamaru said, rushing to her.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, but it was no use. They were both unconscious.

"Looks like we don't even need the medical team. They should regain consciousness in about thirty minutes." Asuma said. "But that was surprising…" Kakashi agreed.

"Yea."

"I could understand Sasuke or Naruto, but even Sakura has grown this much." Asuma stated.

"Many of things have happened. But from the bottom of my heart, I'm glad I entered them in this chunin exam." Kakashi said. Asuma turned to Kakashi.

"How come you didn't enter the other one, then?" He asked.

"Which one?" Kakashi replied, blinking.

"Don't act stupid, Kakashi. You know which one I'm talking about." Asuma replied. Ryu frowned.

"That one can hear everything your saying, dattebane. I have a name! It's Uzumaki Ryuuko! The twin sister of Naruto!" She snarled at Asuma, shocking him.

"Well...the reason I didn't enter her is because…" Kakashi trailed off and Ryu picked up.

"I'm already jounin." She said simply.

"Oh." Asuma said, nodding.

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

"WHAT?" Asuma said in surprise. Ryu took out her identification card and gave it to Asuma to look at and he indeed saw that it showed she was a jounin rank shinobi.

The fifth match had ended and there was a commotion. Ryu turned her attention to the commotion and saw Gai and Lee down there, speaking to the sand nin.

"Don't lose to those guys, Naruto!" Sakura said to Naruto. Naruto turned to her in surprise.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto blinked. "Sakura-chan, are you alright?!" He asked worriedly. Ryu shook her head and stopped a laugh.

"You should be more worried about yourself. If you lose here, you're not a man. How will you be able to face Sasuke-kun?" Sakura replied.

"Y-yeah!" Naruto agreed. Sakura smiled at him.

"Also, thanks for earlier. If it wasn't for you screaming like an idiot...I...would have lost to Ino." She said, blushing. Ryu stood up and bumped into Sakura.

"Hey, I was also screaming like an idiot with him. Where's my thanks?" Ryu grinned. Sakura sweat-dropped.

"T-thanks to you, Ryu-san." Ryu shook her head.

"Just call me Ryu. We are friends now, right?" She said with a smile. Sakura nodded.

"Then call me Sakura." She replied. Kakashi gave the both of them an eye-smile. Ryu blinked and a blush appeared on her cheeks, which Sakura noticed and looked behind her, noticing Kakashi eye-smiling at them. Sakura pulled Ryu away from the group and into a corner. "Ryu, you like Kakashi-sensei?" She asked.

Ryu's slightly pink cheeks turned into a full out red-faced blush. "W-w-what are you talking about, S-sakura?! I don't like that baka sensei!" She replied, shaking her head furiously. Sakura smiled.

"Come on~ You can tell me. I'm your friend right?" She said. Ryu bit her lip and looked away. She looked over to Kakashi and noticed that he was watching the both of them. She froze up and Sakura noticed, glancing over her shoulder and saw Kakashi looking at them. Sakura glared at Kakashi and made him blink in surprise, turning his attention back on the match. It was against Naruto and Kiba.

"So you like him, right?" Sakura asked Ryu once more. Ryu shook her head once again furiously, still blushing bright red.

"I l-l-like my shishou!" Ryu replied. Sakura blinked in surprise.

"Your shishou?" She asked questionably. Ryu shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Before I became truly ANBU, I was an ANBU in training and my shishou was the one that taught me most of the skills I have today." Ryu replied. "I only know him as Wolf." She said, looking away, knowing that she was lying. 'No way was she going to tell Sakura that Wolf was in fact Kakashi.'

"Oh...So your shishou is Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura deduced.

"WHAT? H-how'd you find out?!" Ryu said, a bit too loudly.

"Well, you said you like your shishou and you're blushing at Kakashi-sensei…so that means Kakashi-sensei is actually in ANBU and he's Wolf." Sakura stated. Ryu sweat-dropped. She had forgotten that Sakura was actually pretty smart. Sakura winked though. "No worries though, I'll keep it a secret."

Ryu nodded. "Thanks, Sakura." Kakashi walked over to the both of them.

"Ryu, are you not going to watch your brother's match?" Kakashi asked. "You already missed quite a bit." Ryu smirked.

"I'm confident that Naruto will win." She said, shrugging. Then the three of them walked back to watch the rest of Naruto's match. He had transformed into Kiba and there was three Kibas standing.

Kiba grinned and said to Naruto not to underestimate their noses and Ryu snorted. Kakashi shook his head and placed his hand on Ryu's shoulder and shook his head. Silently telling her not to give anything away.

Naruto had tricked Kiba and Ryu was giggling with Kakashi sweat-dropping. "I told you, sensei. Don't underestimate the genius prankster, Uzumaki Naruto." She grinned. Naruto announced that he was going to do his new secret technique and when Kiba got behind Naruto, Naruto farted.

"Pffft!" Ryu snorted and started laughing.

"Naruto! Here's your chance!" Sakura said to Naruto. Naruto used Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and five clones appeared. They started attacking Kiba.

"U!"

"Zu!"

"Ma!"

"Ki!"

"Naruto Rendan!" Naruto finished off Kiba and Hayate came up to see if Kiba was still conscious.

"Uzumaki Naruto, winner!" He called out.

"OOOHHH!" Lee said, pumped up.

"Hell yeah! This feels great!" Sakura said, happy.

"That Naruto beat Kiba!" Shikamaru said, amazed. Naruto came up and Hinata gave him some medicinal cream. It was Hinata vs. Neji next. Ryu's eyes narrowed.

"I can feel intense hate from the male Hyuga to the female one." Ryu said softly, so that Kakashi would only hear. "I don't like this fight…" She muttered. The battle went on with Hinata constantly standing back up after a brutal hit by Neji.

Hinata was at her limit and Neji went in for the final hit. Ryu noticed and threw a kunai with her strength, it flew so quick that Kakashi could barely see it and by the time it passed Neji, Ryu had already used hiraishin to flash to it. She turned quickly in mid air, pushed Neji back a couple feet.

Then the jounin sensei were there, making sure he did not go even further. Ryu ran to Hinata, who was on the floor, with her hands glowing with healing chakra and instantly started healing her. "How did you…?" One of the jounin asked, Ryu wasn't paying attention to who because she was focused on healing Hinata.

"I was trained by Tsunade in medical ninjutsu. Of course I have noticed how badly injured she is. Before you ask how, I am not a genin! I am a jounin level shinobi! Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei can confirm this!" Ryu replied, harshly. Naruto, Lee and Sakura had also jumped down to see how Hinata was doing.

"In the end, a loser is a loser. They cannot change." Neji said. Naruto glared at Neji.

"You wanna test me?" Naruto growled. Ryu tuned them out and focused on healing Hinata to a stable state so the medical team would have more time to save her. Hinata coughed and blood splurted. Ryu cursed.

"Medical team! What are you doing?! Hurry!" Kurenai yelled at them. Ryu stood up as the medical team took over. Lee had stopped Naruto from attacking Neji. Ryu walked over to them and moved Lee's hand out of the way. Ryu glared with hatred so intense at Neji.

Ryu walked over to Kakashi. "I'm going. You can tell me the results later." She went out the door with an expression of anger on her face.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was sitting on the Yondaime Hokage's head on the Hokage Faces Monument. She was staring into space, absent-minded as she thought of the day's events. The day had been a bit draining on her. She shook her head.

Wolf appeared behind her. "Ah, shishou. Today has been eventful, hasn't it?" Ryu stood up and instantly stumbled backwards. Her chakra was exhausted way more than she had thought. Her eyes eyes widened in shock, her hands reaching out to Wolf.

Wolf wasn't wearing his mask, only the half mask covering his face and both eyes were open. He saw the panic in Ryu's eyes as she stumbled back and instantly jumped forward. He caught her hands but by that time, they were both falling down. He pulled her close to his body and tried to quickly think of a jutsu he could use to get them out of this situation but he had no such jutsu in his arsenal.

Suddenly, red chakra engulfed them both and Ryu used the hiraishin to teleport to the training ground since she had already pre-marked it with the seal years prior. Wolf landed on his back with Ryu on top of him. He sighed with relief. "Sorry, I didn't think my chakra was as exhausted...shishou.." Ryu's voice trailed off as she fell asleep.

Wolf laid there for a couple minutes, still tightly gripping Ryu. When she had started falling backwards, he had felt a rush of fear through him. 'Fear at losing his precious student, right?' He thought to himself. He remembered Ryu's conversation with Sakura.

-Flashback-

"_Then call me Sakura." Sakura had just said to Ryu. Kakashi was happy that Ryu had finally made a friend that was female, and not an enemy instead. Ryu had looked over Sakura's shoulder and noticed that he was smiling at them and a blush tinged her cheeks. Sakura had noticed Ryu blushing and glanced behind her shoulder at Kakashi and then pulled Ryu away into a corner._

_Kakashi blinked in surprise. "Ryu, you like Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Ryu started blushing furiously and stuttering like Hinata and denying that she did. He shook his head and noticed Ryu had frozen. Sakura turned and glared at him, making him turn his gaze back to the preliminary match, however he was still listening to the two of them. _

_Sakura started pestering Ryu even more and Kakashi tried very hard not to laugh. However he froze after he heard what Ryu said, _

"_I l-l-like my shishou!" _

-Flashback Ends-

Wolf stood up with Ryu in his arms and he started heading towards his apartment subconsciously. He was worried. After all, Ryu had used the hiraishin more than she usually did and he knew that each time she used it, it drained quite a bit of her chakra.

She had also changed her chakra into the intense lightning earlier in the day, to melt the sand that the Gaara kid had tried to grab her foot with.

He had noticed her chakra was already pretty low during the preliminary matches and she had even pushed herself to heal Hinata to that extent. 'Why hadn't he stopped her?' Wolf asked himself. He subconsciously gripped the sleeping girl in his arms tighter.

Wolf wondered why he even allowed her to become ANBU in the first place. After all, it was with his permission that the Hokage made her so. He hadn't allowed the Hokage give her any mission above A ranked and even then he reluctantly allowed A ranked missions. Though Ryu didn't know that. If she did, she would have been angry at him for weeks.

He was so glad that she hadn't turned out to be how he was when he had first entered ANBU at such a young age. He was glad that she didn't turn out emotionless. He had made sure of that and with how he always gave her time to spend time with her twin.

Wolf arrived at his apartment and used shunshin to go inside his apartment because he didn't have a free arm to use his key. He walked over to his bedroom and gently set Ryu on the bed. He reached up and pulled the hair tie as gently as he could. He pulled the blankets up so they covered her. He also took off her forehead protector and placed it on the cabinet.

Wolf went and took off his also. He walked out of his bedroom after quietly getting a pair of clean clothes and entering his bathroom, quickly showering. He frowned when he remembered that he didn't have an extra futon. He shrugged and just decided to sleep on the edge of the other side of his bed. After all, it was queen sized. After doing so, he promptly fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Do I have to keep doing this each chapter? *sweat drop* First &amp; Fifth Chapters!~**

Ryu woke up to warmth. She snuggled closer to the warmth and the warmth welcomed her in even more, tightening its grasp on her. She heard a steady thump-thump and it lulled her back to sleep.

-Hours Later-

Ryu opened her eyes and tried to stretch but found out she couldn't. '_Huh?'_ She thought. She blinked a couple times and moved her head since it was the only body part she could really move. What she saw, froze her thoughts.

Kakashi was hugging her tightly and his face was previously in her hair, now it was extremely close to her face. "Waaahhhh!" She jumped out of Kakashi's arms and hit the wall. Kakashi blinked and sat up.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his voice hoarse from sleep. She just stared and then with a furious blush, she disappeared in a flash of yellow, leaving a confused Kakashi behind.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Since Naruto was off training and Sasuke was in the hospital, there was only Sakura and Ryu left. Sakura whose matched resulted in a double knock-out in the preliminary matches had nothing to do. Ryu who was already a jounin, also had nothing to do.

The senile jiji refused to send her along with the other ANBU for infiltration, saying that she was too young. Ryu had started pointing out that the fact she was young could be more of an advantage but was dismissed.

Ryu was dressed in casual clothes, which was basically her ANBU clothes without the grey flak jacket and arm guards. Sakura sweat-dropped when she saw Ryu. "Do you have any girl clothes?"

"Girl clothes?" Ryu asked in surprise.

"Yea! Like skirts, and dresses!" Sakura replied. Ryu shook her head. "We're gonna go shopping!" Sakura insisted. She grabbed Ryu's hand and started dragging her around. They first went to a clothing store. Sakura made Ryu wear many different dresses.

"H-hey! Where are they getting shorter each time?!" Ryu protested as Sakura pushed Ryu back into the changing rooms with another dress.

"This is Operation Catch Kakashi-sensei's eye!" Sakura replied. "We have to get Kakashi-sensei to look at you more than a student! Since you like him!"

"Wait! I never said that I wanted to…!" Ryu protested again but Sakura just dismissed her protests. Sakura had Ryu try on a few more dresses, then she finally settled on one that was similar to Sakura's but just sleeveless and the color of a blue that matches Ryu's eyes.

"There!" Sakura said, happily. "Next is hair!" Ryu frowned and went to pay for the dress, asking a bag to put her ANBU gear in. Sakura dragged Ryu to her house and up to her room.

Sakura pulled the ponytail Ryu had off and started brushing her hair. "Your hair is long and nice. You should keep it down." Sakura suggested as she was brushing Ryu's hair.

"Thanks, and I keep it up because otherwise, it would get in the way." Ryu replied. Sakura nodded in understanding, touching her now short hair.

"I do feel more free without the long hair." Sakura admitted. "Why don't you cut it then, Ryu?" Sakura asked. Ryu blushed.

"B-because Kakashi-sensei likes long hair." She murmured, softly, but Sakura was able to catch it.

"Oh! Then keep it long." Sakura smiled. She finished brushing Ryu's hair. "There. Now go find Kakashi-sensei. I need to go to the flower shop to buy some flowers for Sasuke and Lee." Sakura said, giving Ryu a hug. "Good luck!"

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was walking around in the village trying to find Kakashi. She had visited his usual spots but didn't see him around there at all. She closed her eyes and and focused on finding his chakra and found it near the cliffs not far.

She headed towards there and looked around, seeing nothing, however a few pebbles suddenly fell down from the cliff and landed in front of her. "Eh?" She frowned and looked up. She saw Kakashi hanging off the cliff with one hand. She sweat dropped when she saw him launch himself into the air and catch back on.

Ryu noticed a shadow on top of the cliff and frowned again. She could hear Kakashi's voice but couldn't make out the words. She opened her kunai bag and took out a hiraishin kunai and threw it at Kakashi, who was now standing on the cliff. He easily moved his head out of the way and caught it. He frowned and looked down, which was the direction it came from.

"Move over from the edge, Kakashi-baka!" Ryu yelled up. Kakashi did as he was told and Ryu appeared in front of him not a second later. He blinked in surprise at her.

"What are you wearing?" He asked. Ryu blushed.

"W-what?! I can't wear dresses?" She retorted.

"It's...different, also you have your hair down. What's the occasion? You going on a date?" Kakashi asked, slightly frowning at the last question. Ryu shook her head.

"There's no occasion. There has to be an occasion for me to dress like a girl?" She replied.

"No, but as ANBU, you should know better to dress in something can you restrain your movements. What if the village was under attack right at this moment? You would have no time to change and that dress could get you killed." He said harshly. Ryu stood there, frozen in shock. She blinked back tears and bowed her head, her bangs hiding her face. A few tears escaped and fell to the ground.

She wiped her tears away and when she looked up, Kakashi backed up a couple steps. She was glaring at him with fury. However, it was not the usual hot tempered Red Hot-Blooded Habanero anger, it was the cold fury that he remembered from Minato. The cold anger that Minato had when Kakashi had done something bad and he'd better apologize for it and _soon._

Ryu opened her mouth to say something but closed it. She glared at Kakashi one last time before saying, "I hate you." and disappeared.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Three weeks passed and Kakashi saw not even one hint of Ryu. An ache had settled in his chest and he tried everything to make it go away but he simply could not. So he distracted himself as much as he could with training Sasuke.

He had even tracked her but when he had gotten near her, he got hit with an intense KI that basically told him to stay away so he did. Not even as Wolf could he get near her. '_Maybe she did truly hate him?'_ Kakashi thought. He shook his head when the ache in his chest hurt when he thought that. '_What am I thinking? She's my student.' _

Ryu had shoved the dress she bought into the back of her closet and returned to wearing the ANBU uniform. She had told Sakura what happened and Sakura hugged her, telling her that Kakashi was an idiot. So Ryu was now often in the apartment she shared with Naruto, studying scrolls. They were scrolls on sealing and as someone from the Uzumaki Clan, she felt like it was her duty to learn it.

Suddenly, she felt Kurama's chakra flare up. '_What was that?'_ She asked Kurama, instantly going into the mindscape.

'**My other half decided to lend Naruto some chakra to summon the Toad Chief because he was falling down a trench thanks to Jiraiya.' **Kurama replied.

'_That damn ero-sennin!'_ Ryu growled. She stood up and cleaned all the scrolls and put them away, before heading out to see if she could find where Naruto was.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu found Naruto in the hospital, sleeping. He had been sleeping for three days and Ryu had visited him each day. However, when she walked into his room, she heard Shikamaru and Naruto talking. They were talking about how they should eat the basket of fruit in front of Choji since he couldn't eat.

Ryu shook her head and face-palmed. "That's going a bit overboard, don't you think?" She asked. Naruto shook his head and grinned.

"Nah, we're just visiting him and happen to be hungry so we're eating fruit." Naruto said. Ryu shrugged.

"Let's go then." She walked out of the room with Naruto and Shikamaru following her. As they were walking, Naruto suddenly stopped and so did Ryu. Both of them headed towards Lee's room and all of three of them stood there shocked. Shikamaru instantly used his Shadow Copy Jutsu to stop Gaara from killing Lee. Naruto punched Gaara in the face, which made Shikamaru also move his head.

"What are you doing here, bastard?!" Naruto said angrily.

"Hey Naruto..while I'm using Shadow Copy Jutsu, I move the same as him." Shikamaru said to Naruto.

"Sorry Shikamaru." Naruto replied. Ryu stepped into the room and glared at Gaara.

"What are you up to?" She said, coldly, the fury in her eyes were the only emotion on her face.

"I was trying to kill him." Gaara stated. Naruto and Shikamaru stood there shocked.

"Why is there a need to do that? You won the fight! Do you have some personal grudge against him?" Shikamaru asked.

"I do not. I'm going to kill him just because I want to kill him." Gaara replied. "That one over there should understand. She had the same look in her eyes." He said, looking over at Ryu.

Ryu bared her teeth in reply, her canines had lengthened, courtesy of Kurama's own anger merging with hers. "I am nothing like you. Even if I want to kill just because, I don't. I only follow orders that require assassination." She snarled.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you too."

"What?! Go ahead and try!" Naruto yelled at him.

"Hey Naruto! Stop!" Shikamaru said to Naruto. Ryu snorted.

"I'd like to see you try. You can't even touch me with that sand of yours." Her chakra spiked up and sparks of lightning could be seen.

"I'll say it again. Get in my way and I'll kill you." Gaara replied.

"I won't be killed by the likes of you!" Naruto said angrily.

"I told you to stop it! His strength is like a monster, don't you understand that?!" Shikamaru yelled at Naruto. Naruto just snorted and grinned.

"I have a real monster in me. I won't lose to the likes of him!" Naruto said confidently. Ryu smiled. '_So he found out.'_ She thought, walking up to stand in front of Naruto and Shikamaru.

"A monster, eh? Then...it's the same for me." Gaara replied. "I had a messed up childhood. I was born into this world by taking the life of the woman I would have called my mother...to become the ultimate shinobi...with my father attaching the incarnation of sand upon me through ninjutsu. I was born a monster." Gaara said, a deadly look in his eyes.

...Called Shukaku, it was sealed within a kettle. It's the living spirit of an old Hidden Sand priest." Gaara explained. Shikamaru blinked in surprise.

"A possession jutsu that allows one to be possessed before birth...to go that far...that's crazy." Shikamaru stated.

'**Kit, it seems like Naruto encountered the me on his side and demanded payment for living in his body.' **Kurama rumbled in Ryu's mind, bringing her into her mindscape.

'_So Naruto knows that there's a 'monster' living inside him?'_ Ryu asked.

'**Basically. I don't think that he knows what that 'monster' truly is yet. I don't know if he knows that you have the other half of that 'monster' in you too.' **Kurama replied. Ryu nodded. Kurama suddenly pushed Ryu abruptly outside her mindscape. She saw Naruto shaking with fear and Gaara's sand appearing in front of them.

"Now...let me feel it…" Gaara said, with a blood thirsty look in his eyes. Ryu's eyes flashed to Kurama's and her chakra flared up as Kurama lended her his chakra.

"Bring it!" She snarled, her whiskers thickening and canines becoming like Kurama's, red chakra flaring out from her body, but not yet taking a shape.

"That's enough!" A voice said furiously, breaking the tension between the two battle ready jinchuriki that were ready to attack with an intent to kill. "The Finals are tomorrow. Don't get antsy...Or do you want to stay here, starting today?" Gai asked, a serious expression on his face.

"Ugh…" Gaara groaned, grabbing his head. He started walking towards the door but before he left, he turned his head. "I'll definitely kill you guys...just wait." He threatened, and left. Gai was looking sternly down at the three kids in front of him.

All three of them weren't meeting his eyes. Ryu had returned to normal. She headed over to the window and opened it, jumping out and disappearing. Shikamaru and Naruto walked out, with their heads down. Naruto looked up and noticed Kakashi leaning on the wall next to the doorway, reading an Icha Icha book.

"Eh? Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked at Naruto.

"I felt chakra spikes, Gai just happen to reach here faster than me and handled it." Kakashi replied to Naruto.

"Oh." Naruto said, nodding. He turned and left. Kakashi sighed. He had in fact arrived here first because he had felt Ryu's chakra spike, the first time it had spiked up. That had been the closest he had been in the first time of three weeks. She had most likely sensed his presence after and that was why she used the window.

Kakashi sighed and shook his head. He had decided to let her approach him if she would ever speak to him again. Tomorrow was the final exams and he had done all he could training Sasuke. He hadn't trained him as hard as he did with Ryu, since Sasuke didn't have Ryu's healing powers thanks to the Kyuubi.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Today was the day of the Finals and many people from other villages gathered to Konoha. Of course with Ryu being ANBU, she was currently in full ANBU gear with the black cloak and with her henge so it wouldn't be revealed that she was that young.

She was stationed near the arena but far enough that she couldn't hear anything. Ryu sighed, and pouted from under the mask. '_It was her brother's match that was first dammit!'_ She thought.

Ryu closed her eyes and concentrated her chakra to her ears, so her hearing would increase was able to pick up some fighting sounds. She could hear the attacks connecting with Naruto's body.

"32 Hands!...64 Hands!" She heard, which was obviously Neji. Ryu frowned and instantly created a mental link with Naruto, staying in the background. Neji kept on going on about destiny as Ryu tuned him out.

'_Naruto! Even with all your chakra points closed, there is another chakra you can use remember! The Kyuubi's chakra!'_ She said into his mind.

'_How?'_ Naruto asked.

'_Focus. Focus on waking up the Kyuubi, forcefully bring his chakra out! His chakra will open the opening points.'_ Ryu replied. Naruto started focusing on bringing the Kyuubi's chakra out and it slowly started seeping into his body.

One by one, the opening points started opening and the malicious chakra could be felt by everyone in the arena. The Hokage stared surprised. '_I knew that Ryu already has the Kyuubi under her control, but when did Naruto learn…?!'_ He thought.

Naruto and Neji started battling and Neji became overwhelmed by the speed that Naruto now had because of the Kyuubi's chakra. They both advanced to each other and with an explosion, both were knocked away and onto the ground. After a couple seconds, Neji stood up and said to Naruto, who was laying on the ground, knocked out.

"Loser...sorry but this is reality." Suddenly, a fist flew up from under the ground of which Neji was standing on and punched Neji on the chin, making him fly up and blood flew out of his mouth. "Guh...my body.." Neji groaned. "Ugh...to quickly use Kage Bunshin in that situation...your main jutsu eh? How careless of me…"

"I...I failed the academy graduation exam three times...that's because unluckily for me, the ninjutsu test on the final exam was always decided as my weakest ninjutsu..the bunshin jutsu was my worst ninjutsu." Naruto said, with a serious expression. "Destiny can't be changed, blah blah. Stop whining about stupid crap like that. Since...you're not a loser like me."

"Winner...Uzumaki Naruto!" Everyone started clapping at the announcement. Ryu mentally high-fived Naruto.

'_That was awesome, Naruto!' _Ryu said, grinning at him in the mindscape. Naruto rubbed the back of his head, slightly blushing.

'_It was only because of your help, Ryu. Thanks.'_ He replied. Shikamaru's match passed and went. Ryu narrowed her eyes as she felt a familiar chakra appear in the arena. She sighed. '_Maybe it was time to forgive him? It was a stupid reason to get angry anyways...plus he had a point...' _

Kakashi appeared behind Gai and Lee. "Hey, Gai and Lee too! Your body is alright now?" Sakura turned her head and glared at Kakashi, surprising him. 'So Sakura is also mad?' He sweat-dropped.

A flash of yellow appeared behind Kakashi and he instantly ducked as a kick was aimed for his head. He turned and, holding a kunai and recognized Ryu's Fox mask instantly. "What are you doing here?"

"Figured that I'm needed here than out there just sitting around doing nothing." She replied, shrugging. "Hey, Sakura." Ryu greeted and Sakura waved back. She stood next to Kakashi with Lee and Gai staring curiously at Kakashi with subtle glances at Ryu. Ino turned to Sakura.

"Who's that?" Ino asked. Sakura shrugged.

"Ask Kakashi-sensei if you want to know." She replied. Kakashi glanced at Ryu as she walked over to his left side. She murmured softly, making sure that he would be the only one to hear.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi turned his head in surprise. "I wasn't really thinking that day, and...the answer you gave me wasn't what I was looking forward to hear as Sakura dragged me around all day…" Kakashi nodded an understanding. By now, he would have already reached up and ruffled her hair but since she was wearing the standard ANBU black cloak and mask, he really couldn't do that.

Ryu turned her attention to Sasuke's match and noticed that Gaara was surrounded by a sphere of sand. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, panting from running so fast.

"Hn? What's up?" Kakashi replied, turning his head.

"Sensei! Stop this fight right now! He's totally different from us! He's not normal! He lives to kill others! Anyway, at this rate...Sasuke will die!" Naruto said, panicking.

"Well...Don't worry. He and I weren't late for nothing." Kakashi replied calmly. Ryu looked at him curiously.

"Sensei, what do you mean that you weren't late for nothing?" Sakura asked him.

"Hn? You wanna know?" Kakashi replied.

"Look, we don't have time for this!" Naruto interrupted.

"Be quiet and watch him...you'll be surprised." Kakashi said, turning his attention to the match. Sasuke jumped back from Gaara a couple times, jumping on the wall and holding on with chakra on his feet and started doing handsigns. Ryu instantly recognized them.

"Really, sensei? You taught him that jutsu? What's his limit?" Ryu asked curiously.

"Two times." Kakashi replied. Ryu snorted. Kakashi sweat-dropped. "There's no one else that's a demon like you, with such huge amounts of chakra." Ryu turned her head and he could hear the sneer in her voice.

"Look who is talking, _Wolf demon_!" Kakashi shook his head and sighed.

"I still don't understand how you can use Chidori without having the Sharingan." Ryu shrugged.

"Well, they are rumors that the Kyuubi gave the Uchiha Clan their Sharingan." Kakashi scoffed but got the hint. By the time his attention went back to the match, Sasuke had already breached the sand defense with Chidori.

"BLOOD...MY BLOOD!" Gaara's scream came from the sphere. Sasuke started pulling his hand out and hand to activate Chidori again to pull it out. '_This feeling!'_ Ryu's eyes widened. As Sasuke pulled his hand out, another arm followed. Ryu recognized it instantly, thanks to Kurama's memories.

Suddenly, a genjutsu was casted. Ryu instantly released it, as did Sakura, Gai and Kakashi. There was other shinobi that was able to detect the genjutsu and also release it. Ryu saw the other two genin sand ninjas take Gaara and retreated, Sasuke soon following.

Two sound ninja suddenly appeared in front of Sakura, Ryu raised an chakra-enhanced fist and punched one in the jaw as hard as she could and knocked the sound ninja into the other and they went flying into the other wall.

Ryu started quickly going through the sound ninja that were attacking, her training with Wolf kicking in, her training with Tsunade also helping. Kakashi started talking to Sakura and giving her orders. She suddenly scented Kakashi's blood and instantly turned, alarmed but saw him summoning Pakkun. She jumped over to them.

"Ryu, go with them. Don't ask questions. No, in fact go ahead of them. Help out Sasuke, alright? You didn't give him a hiraishin kunai yet did you?" Kakashi asked. Ryu shook her head. "That's fine, with your speed, you'll probably catch up to him rather quickly, now go!"

**First of all, thank you for pointing out the loophole in the story. I actually hadn't noticed it...It will be answered in Chapter 16 however, so it'll be a bit of a wait before it is...**

**Secondly, Thank you everyone for reading, following, favoriting and reviewing! **


	7. Chapter 7

As Ryu was running through the trees, she was basically a black blur. It was incredibly hard to spot her with the trees for cover. Ryu felt a chakra surge in the direction in where Sasuke was and instantly picked up her pace. She barely touched the tree branches and if she did, they would always leave marks with how hard she was pushing.

Not long after the first surge, she felt it again, '_That idiot!' _she thought. She saw Sasuke and Gaara charge at each other and mid way, she saw Sasuke's Chidori die out. She quickly threw a hiraishin kunai and she was able to land a solid punch on Gaara, making him fly a few feet away before hitting a tree. She grabbed Sasuke and set him down on another tree branch.

"Ryu?" He asked. She nodded, taking off her mask. Naruto and Sakura arrived and landed beside them with Pakkun. She dropped the hood on the black cloak. Gaara glared at Naruto.

"...You...you're the one I failed to kill that time." He observed. Naruto narrowed his eyes, then realized what Gaara was going to do and turned quickly to Sakura, Sasuke and Ryu.

"You guys! Get away!" He yelled. Ryu looked up from healing Sasuke and pushed Sakura out of the way.

"Die! Uchiha Sasuke!" Gaara yelled, with an evil grin and blood thirsty look on his face. Ryu narrowed her eyes and Gaara hit Ryu full force with his transformed arm into a tree. Pain showed on her face and she coughed up blood.

"Ryu!" Sakura said in panic.

"Sis!" Naruto called out. Ryu shook her head and smiled.

"I'm fine...it's just some blood." She replied. Gaara tightened his fist and Ryu groaned.

"Just some blood?" Gaara sneered. "That doesn't sound like just some blood." She looked up and he saw her whiskers thicken and her eyes change to Kurama's.

"Yes. Just some blood." She replied, before red chakra flared out from her. Naruto's eyes widened. '_That's exactly like __**His**_ _chakra!' _He thought. Lightning flared from her body and she broke out from his grasp. "You said you were a monster, yesterday didn't you? I'll show you a _demon._"

Red tails sprouted from behind Ryu, nine to be exact. Her chakra flared up to new heights and the KI was malicious as she was about to attack him, the chakra earring flared up and suddenly started sealing Kurama's chakra. '_What is this earring doing?!'_ She thought with panic.

'**You get rather uncontrollable without Kakashi around if you use my chakra in this way, so I think he set this up as a precaution.'** Kurama rumbled. '**It's also making me fall asleep, so I won't be able to help you...' **Ryu groaned as the tails disappeared one by one and Gaara saw that as a chance to attack an undefended Ryu. Naruto however, instantly kicked Gaara, making him fly a couple feet away.

"Are you okay, sis?" He asked. Ryu shook her head.

"Kakashi-sensei gave me something that restrains me from using that power while he's not near me, and it's making me...lose..conscious." Ryu said, trailing off and indeed lose conscious.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Two days passed and Ryu was in the hospital still in deep sleep. Kakashi was leaning against the wall opposite of her bed. '_Maybe the genjutsu was a bit too strong?' _ He thought. The funeral for the Hokage had just finished a couple hours earlier.

There was no outward injuries on her, just some fatigue but the doctors just told him she was sleeping. Not in a coma, sleeping. '_So why hasn't she woken up yet?' _He asked himself. Kakashi closed the Icha Icha book he wasn't really reading and went over to close the curtains. He walked over, pulled his mask down and laid his forehead on hers.

Kakashi closed his eyes and listened to the pattern of her breathing. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "But the last time you used that when I wasn't there...I almost lost you." He stayed like that for a couple minutes before he stood up, glancing at the time and sighed.

He had planned to meet up with Sasuke and the time he had promised was coming up. He glanced over at the sleeping Ryu and left the room, heading over to the dango shop.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"Ne, Kurama, when can I wake up?" Ryu asked him as she was sitting in her mindscape.

"**Until I make sure that nothing is wrong. That cut off could have done some damage and while you have no outer injuries, you could have inner ones." **He replied. Ryu was sitting between his paws, he was firmly holding her in the mindscape and not allowing her to wake up.

"Do you know how long it has been?" She asked. Kurama hummed.

"**No." **He lied, which Ryu caught but dropped it.

"I wonder if Naruto is worried about me." She said thoughtfully.

"**I can sense some of his worry, so yes."** Kurama replied. He suddenly tensed up. "**There's movement outside near your body...and this time it's not Kakashi either! Wake up!" **Kurama suddenly released Ryu and her eyes flew open.

She turned her head and glared at however was besides her bed. She saw a pair of Sharingan stare right at her. "This is one of the Kyuubi brats?" The man behind the one with the Sharingan asked.

"Who wants to know?" Ryu replied, her eyes narrowing.

"Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi." Ryu instantly recognized the names and flashed over to her gear, which was across the room. "Oh, this one is fast." Kisame remarked.

"S-class criminals in the Bingo Book, I know better than to try and fight you two, so my only other option is to escape. Which is quite easy." Ryu said, shrugging. She grabbed her gear and disappeared.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu suddenly appeared in Kakashi's apartment and scared Kurenai, Asuma and Gai with her sudden appearance. "What are you three doing here?" She asked and no one answered. Her gaze landed on Kakashi, who was asleep on the bed. Her eyes widened for a second then narrowed. "He did this didn't he?"

"Weren't you in the hospital, asleep?" Asuma asked Ryu. She nodded.

"The Kyuubi felt movement that he wasn't familiar with woke me up. Once I found out who it was, I did the sensible thing and escaped. They might try and go after Naruto now." She replied. Sasuke suddenly walked in.

"Why is Kakashi sleeping? Why are the Jounin all gathered here where he's resting? Also, weren't you in the hospital in deep sleep, Ryu?" He asked. Ryu looked away and refused to answer his questions.

"Um, No...It's not really that." Gai tried, however suddenly another Jounin barged in.

"Is the story that Itachi had returned really true?! And that he is chasing Ryu and Naruto?!" He asked and noticed Sasuke right after. "Ah!" Ryu facepalmed and Gai did the same.

"Idiot." Kurenai replied. Sasuke's eyes widened and he ran out before anyone could process and Gai quickly went after him.

Ryu sat by Kakashi's bed and frowned. "I don't know if I should leave you like this to slowly heal or use Tsunade's training to help." She growled. "After that sudden sealing that you did!" She sighed and placed her palm on Kakashi's head and frowned even deeper. She sighed. "I won't be able to undo this one. My training with Tsunade also really focused on chakra control, strength increasing and memorization of herbs and poisons." She murmured to herself.

It was a day later when Ryu got the news that Sasuke was brought to the hospital by Gai with the same reason as why Kakashi was bed-ridden. She frowned with worry for Naruto. For the next two weeks, Ryu often visited both Kakashi and Sasuke, though making sure she left Sakura alone with Sasuke for some time alone.

One day, when she opened the door into Kakashi's apartment, she heard a familiar voice, "Humph, you were beaten by only two enemies? I thought you were a genius." Tsunade scolded. Ryu walked a bit quicker and noticed that Kakashi was sitting up.

"Tsunade-baachan! Are you going to be staying for long?" She asked, hugging Tsunade. Tsunade hugged her back, and smiled.

"I'll be staying for quite a while, since I'm the Fifth Hokage." She replied. Ryu blinked in surprise.

"Congratulations!" Ryu grinned.

"Ah, I prefer this Kyuubi brat than the other one…" Tsunade said with a teasing grin. Ryu sweat-dropped.

"Jiraiya-jiji and Naruto went to go get you right?" Ryu asked, Tsunade nodded. "Ah! Did Shizune-nee come with you too?"

"She did."

"Ah! I'll have to go say hello. But first, I'll go visit Sasuke. I'll see you later then, shishou!" Ryu ran out of Kakashi's apartment. '_Shishou?' _Tsunade thought. '_Ryu has never called me shishou before…' _

Tsunade turned to Kakashi. "What did Ryu mean by shishou?!" She asked furiously. Gai interrupted before Kakashi could answer.

"Forget about this idiot! Please take a look at my student Lee!" Tsunade nodded and before she turned to leave,

"You will be explaining this to me later!"

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The ceremony for Tsunade to become the Fifth Hokage was the next day. Everyone attended and cheered. Naruto tched his tongue.

"An baa-chan like her doesn't suit the job, but I have to admit she is pretty strong!" Ryu laughed in reply.

"Then become stronger so you'll be Hokage, Naruto."

"You bet!" Naruto grinned.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Chapters One and Five!~ **

**Part II**

_Three Years Later_

Naruto hadn't been the only one that went off to go do his training with Jiraiya. Ryu had also requested to be able to go on her own to train. Tsunade would have refused if Ryu had not promised to send her weekly updates.

Ryu had left the day after she got Tsunade's consent. However, Ryu had left before Naruto did with Jiraiya. With only Naruto and Tsunade knowing. Kakashi had looked around for days after he realized that she was gone, before he gave up and went to go ask Tsunade if she knew where Ryu had gone.

The three years that passed had taken a toll on Kakashi. The loneliness increased and the ache in his chest ached even more. However, he would never admit it to anyone. He was currently reading an Icha Icha book on the roof of a building in Konoha. He suddenly heard, "I missed this place! It hasn't changed one bit!" Kakashi looked up and saw Naruto standing up on a pole, looking out to the village.

"You've grown a lot, haven't you, Naruto?" Kakashi observed. Naruto turned and noticed him. "Yo!" He greeted.

"Kakashi-sensei! You haven't changed at all!" Naruto said, jumping down and landing beside Kakashi with a wide smile. He suddenly remembered something. "I have a present for you , Kakashi-sensei!" He said, taking out Jiraiya's new Icha Icha Tactics book and giving it to Kakashi.

"What?! You...H-how...This is…" Kakashi said, surprised.

"This is the latest in the Icha Icha series after three years! It's really boring, but you'll still like it...I think!" Naruto replied. "Alright! Next stop, straight to Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto said in excitement, heading towards Ichiraku Ramen.

"As promised, I'll leave Naruto back in your care." Jiraiya said to Kakashi, both of them were walking at a slower pace behind Naruto. Suddenly, arms appeared besides Kakashi's face and wrapped themselves around his neck and he felt a body press up from behind him that he could definitely tell that was female.

"Jiraiya-jiji, how was your trip with Naruto? Did he mature or anything?" A familiar but not familiar voice asked from besides Kakashi's ear. Jiraiya turned his head and recognized Ryu instantly. She wasn't wearing her mask and had the standard black on with the ANBU uniform underneath it.

"Ah, the results of his training, huh? You'll see it later." Jiraiya replied with a smile. "How about yours?"

Ryu shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I mostly went off to learn more about the Uzumaki fuinjutsu. I was successful in learning more about fuinjutsu but not so much on the Uzumaki Clan fuinjutsu. But I indeed got stronger, that I know." She grinned.

Kakashi sighed. "How long are you gonna stick to me, pup?" He asked.

"Until I am satisfied." She replied. Kakashi's eye softened at Ryu's reply. He had indeed missed her. Sakura and Naruto were talking when Sakura looked up and noticed Ryu who was basically clinging to Kakashi.

"Ryu!" Sakura called out, catching her attention.

"Ah! Sakura!" Ryu waved. She let go of Kakashi and walked around him towards Sakura.

"How have you been?" Sakura asked with a smile.

"I've been good. How about you?" Ryu replied.

"Good too! Shishou has been teaching me medical ninjutsu." Sakura said. Sakura looked Ryu up and down. A tinge of jealousy filled Sakura. Ryu had obviously grew a womanly shape with wicked curves. Sakura grinned and pulled Ryu over to the side. "With those curves, I think you get finally snag Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura whispered.

Ryu sweat-dropped and waved her hands back and forth. "Sakura, I don't like Kakashi-sensei anymore. It was a silly crush." She replied with a slight blush.

"Oh come one! I can see that blush!" Sakura insisted. Ryu backed up a couple steps.

"No, really! It was nothing more than a silly crush. Plus, I don't think Kakashi-sensei even sees me that way." Ryu replied, her expression falling. "After all, I'm his precious student." She murmured, sadly. Sakura pulled Ryu into a hug.

"I think you two would look amazing together. He seems to be more relaxed in your presence. Also, he teases you the most. It must mean something, right?" Sakura murmured into Ryu's ear. Ryu sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know, Sakura…" Ryu replied. Sakura looked over to Kakashi, who was engrossed in the Icha Icha Tactics. Sakura suddenly remembered something interesting she had done in the three years.

"Actually! I know something that can help! Come over to my house in a couple hours!" Sakura said mysteriously.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Hours later, Ryu was in Sakura's room with Sakura's excitement showing. "I was doing some research on Kakashi-sensei over the three years because well, I wanted to help you. While I was searching, I stumbled upon some nice information on the Hatake family!" Sakura said with a grin.

Ryu blinked, her interest intrigued. "What did you find out?" Ryu asked.

"Well, a long time ago, the Hatake line was rather close to wolf demons before the demons died out and apparently, they were the Guardians of the Hatake line. Each member of the Hatake line has some features that are rather wolf-like. But the one thing that is the same for every of them is that they forever search for the one that will be their own true Mate!" Sakura's eyes sparkled. "It's just so romantic! And apparently they can tell who their Mate is by their scent! All we have to do is get Kakashi-sensei to get a whiff of you without that mask of his and we'll know or not if you are his true Mate!" She said excitedly.

Ryu snorted and started laughing. "Even if all that stuff is true, which I doubt that it is, he already got a whiff of me without his mask once. It was three years ago, when I first joined your team and I got frustrated by the D-rank missions and went into the Forest of Death to let out my frustrations." Sakura frowned.

"But that was before you hit puberty right? It says here that in the case that the Mate is younger, the desire to claim their Mate will not emerge until the Mate has hit puberty." Sakura replied. Ryu shook her head.

"Sakura, give up. I already have. Over the three years I thought about it and like I said, it was a silly crush!" Ryu said, the decision made. Sakura sighed. "Nevermind me, what about Sasuke?" She asked. Sakura blinked in surprise.

"What about him?" Sakura replied.

"Were you able to snag him? Or has he fallen into the hands of Ino?" Ryu shrugged. Sakura shook her head.

"He's been too busy for that stuff. He joined ANBU." Sakura replied. Ryu's eyes widened and she grinned mischieviously.

"Oh? I'm going to find out which one he is and totally make him call me senpai!" Ryu replied. "Well, I'm gonna go drop by Tsunade-baachan's office, I'll see you later, Sakura!" She jumped out of Sakura's window and onto a roof and headed towards the Hokage Tower.

She honestly didn't want to just Hiraishin in there and get a paperweight thrown at her so she went the normal way and opened the door like a normal shinobi. However, a paperweight was still thrown at her.

Ryu ducked and sweat-dropped when it buried itself into the wall behind her. "That could have killed me!" She said, turning to Tsunade. Tsunade snorted in reply.

"I doubt that could. I bet if I threw that at full strength, you would still be able to avoid it."

"Well, yea, but what if someone had been behind me?"

"You would have caught it." Tsunade replied. Ryu sighed. "What do you need?"

"I heard that Sasuke joined ANBU?" She asked. Tsunade nodded.

"Yes. I thought it would be good for him to join. It has been so far. It has been about six months or so since he has joined."

"Well, I'll need to report to Headquarters and tell the Commander I'm back on mission status then?" Ryu asked. Tsunade nodded.

"Though, you don't have to go to him right now. I have a mission for you now that I have been trying to find the right shinobi for, but since you are here now, you'll do." Tsunade replied. Ryu sighed.

"I'm guessing I go as ANBU then?"

"Might as well. Go to Sunagakure and deliver this scroll for me. Directly to the Kazekage, get his reply then come back." Tsunade ordered.

"A mere delivery? Why not get a chunin to do it?" Ryu asked.

"This is a scroll of uttermost importance. It needs to be delivered quickly and you are the fastest shinobi we have." Tsunade replied.

"Does Sunagakure have one of my Hiraishin kunai there?" Ryu sighed.

"Yes. I remembered to give them one. In case I ever needed you to be there quickly." Tsunade nodded. Ryu quickly put on her black cloak and her mask.

"I'll be off then." Tsunade dismissed her and Ryu disappeared with a flash of yellow.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Kakashi wandered around Konoha, thinking about the test he had finished a couple hours ago with Sakura and Naruto.

-Flashback-

_Kakashi had to admit, the two had grown. The first time they did the bell test had been too easy. The only one he had been wary of the first time was Ryu because he didn't know if she was going to pull out anything that was higher than genin level techniques. Now, he had to actually use his Sharingan for the two. _

_It made him wonder how much Ryu had grown in the three years. His eyes softened slightly. She had indeed grown. She was taller now, now up to his chest rather than waist. The look in her eyes changed, they were more mature. He shook his head. He had to focus on the other two and not just Ryu._

_Kakashi was hiding behind a tree, waiting for Sakura and Naruto to make a move. He heard a rustle and saw the two jump right at him at a direct attack. _'Are they idiots? Going for a direct attack...'_Kakashi thought. _

"_Now Naruto!" Sakura said. _

"_Let's go, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned. "In Icha Icha Tactics, the truth is that the main character…" Kakashi's eyes widened and he blocked his ears but realised with the Sharingan, he could read Naruto's lips and quickly closed his eyes. _

_After a few seconds, Kakashi looked up and saw Naruto and Sakura holding a bell. He stopped blocking his ears and blinked. "Huh?" Naruto and Sakura grinned._

"_A ninja should look underneath the underneath." Naruto said to Kakashi._

"_Right, sensei?" Sakura added. _

-Flashback End-

Kakashi looked up into the sky and frowned. '_I wonder how you have grown, Ryu.' _He thought.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu arrived at Sunagakure with a yellow flash, scaring the council members that were in a meeting, along with the Kazekage. "Oh whoops, are you all in a meeting? I'll wait outside then." She said, quickly heading towards the door and waiting outside.

It was around twenty minutes later that the finished up. Gaara walked up to Ryu and silently motioned her to follow him and she did. They went into his office.

"What is it that you need?" Gaara asked her. She pulled out the scroll Tsunade had gave her.

"Tsunade-sama gave me this to give it to you, saying it was of uttermost importance." Ryu replied, handing it over to Gaara. Suddenly, Ryu noticed something from outside Gaara's window and narrowed her eyes. She silently took a Hiraishin kunai out from her kunai bag and handed it over to Gaara, who silently took it and slipped it into his robe.

Gaara nodded at Ryu and she nodded back. He headed out first, Ryu followed behind but a bit slower. Her ears picked up three bangs and narrowed her eyes. "Infiltration successful…" She heard. "Huh? Ho-" Sand flew towards the intruder but he was able to dodge it and get on his bird.

The sand chased after the intruder and Gaara jumped onto a pile of sand himself, following the intruder into the sky. "You knew it was me." The intruder stated.

"In this desert, no bird like that exists." Gaara replied.

"Heh..it seems like my sneaking in was a failure. Thanks to that, I don't need to search for you." The intruder said. A huge amount of sand rose up from behind Gaara. "As one would expect, he has the geographical advantage. It's risky."

Ryu was watching the fight from the ground, with Kankuro and the other Sand shinobi. "Tell me if you need me to interfere. I'll be able to help Gaara." She said to Kankuro.

"Will you be able to fight with him, is the question." He replied.

"Quite easily. I wasn't in ANBU so early for nothing." Ryu said, smirking from behind her mask. A giant bird suddenly started plummeting towards the village.

"What the hell is that?!" One of the Sand shinobi said, staring at it. Sand rose up to cover the area of the explosion that happened just as the sand rose up. After a couple minutes, the sand started falling and Gaara fell. The intruder caught Gaara and flew off. Kankuro instantly started following. Ryu was about to follow him, herself but was stopped.

"No! With how fast you got here with the scroll, even with the bird we sent, we do not know if the bird gets intercepted or not, so go back to Konoha and tell the Hokage!" Ryu nodded and instantly flashed to Tsunade's office but noticed she wasn't there and ran to the room where they gave out missions.

Ryu burst into the room, startling everyone in the room. Tsunade noticed that it was Ryu. Kakashi frowned as he heard the panting coming from Ryu. "Tsunade! The Kazekage has been captured by the Akatsuki!" Everyone in the room was shocked.

"Team Kakashi, I'm assigning you a new mission. Go to Sunagakure at once and get a grip on the situation there, and report back to the Leaf. After that, follow any orders the Sand gives you and back them up! Fox, go with them!" Tsunade ordered.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was waiting at the gates for Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto. She had quickly packed her things and arrived there. Ryu shook her head and bit her lip. The trip from Sunagakure was a big one and using hirashin to get there even once a day was hard, but she had done it twice and the toll was quickly catching up to her.

It used quite a bit of chakra and even with Kurama's chakra constantly mixing with hers, allowing her chakra reserves to be rather larger than usual, she knew that if she made that trip one more time, she would be out for days with extreme chakra exhaustion and that was not what they needed at the time.

Kakashi was the second one to arrive. He instantly walked up to her and pulled her mask off, scaring her and stared in her eyes. "W-what are you doing?!" She said in slight panic. His eye narrowed.

"Stay here." He said, sternly.

"Like hell!" She replied.

"Your chakra is depleted."

"So what? I can still make the trip! It's not as tasking, spreading out that distance with three days rather than instantly in a couple seconds!" Ryu insisted.

"What if we run into an enemy?" Kakashi asked, the expression on his face, serious.

"I still have enough chakra to use to be able to be on par with Tsunade's strength!" Ryu replied.

"With a couple punches and kicks, maybe." Kakashi frowned.

"Even so, I can handle myself without using chakra perfectly fine!" Ryu snapped. Kakashi's expression softened.

"I know. I'm just worried about you." He sighed.

"I'm not a kid anymore, shishou!" Kakashi shook his head.

"Why not drop shishou and just call me Kakashi? After all, I have taught you everything I can." Kakashi said. A blush found its way to Ryu's cheeks.

"W-w-wha! K-ka..k-k-kash….!" Ryu stammered, her face turning red.

"Oooiii! Have you two been waiting long?" Naruto called out, walking towards Ryu and Kakashi. Sakura was beside him. She instantly noticed Ryu's red face and looked back and forth at Kakashi and Ryu. A grin appeared on Sakura's face.

Ryu's face turned even redder and she quickly took her mask from Kakashi and wore it once again, hiding her face. Kakashi tilted his head to the side in confusion. "What's wrong?" He asked Ryu.

"N-nothing, dattebane!" She replied, quickly. "Let's just go now with everyone here, dattebane!" Sakura grinned at the verbal tic. Kakashi shook his head and shrugged. Tsunade and Iruka was there, seeing them off.

"Ok, Tsunade-shishou, off we go." Sakura said to Tsunade. Iruka turned to Naruto,

"Do your best!" He encouraged with a smile. They turned to go but Jiraiya landed in front of them. The group stopped once more. Ryu stumbled and shook her head. Kakashi instantly walked to her, grabbed her arm and dragged her to Tsunade, who had just finished talking to Jiraiya.

"What are you doing, dattebane?!" Ryu said, struggling to get out of Kakashi's grip, but he had a tight grip on her arm. He ignored her.

"Please check on this one before we go." Kakashi requested Tsunade. Tsunade blinked in surprise but nodded, raising her hands to check Ryu. Ryu snarled at Kakashi and was still struggling. Tsunade frowned at Ryu. Kakashi suddenly changed his grip to place both hands on her shoulders firmly. "Stop struggling! If you don't let Tsunade check you, I won't allow you to go at all!" He growled at her, staring into the eyeholes in her mask.

Ryu was about to argue but when her body locked up and froze. '_What the?' _She thought. '_Kurama, is this your doing?' _She asked the dozing fox.

'**No. You probably couldn't sense it but Kakashi just used one of his abilities as someone from the Hatake line. He used the aura of the Alpha just now so you would stop struggling. Don't ask me to fight it because I can't. Also, I don't know if he even knows that he can do that.' **Kurama replied. '**Now let me sleep.' **And he fell quiet. Tsunade's voice jolted her from the mindscape.

"She's fine, Kakashi. Her chakra is just depleted a bit. As expected from going to Sunagakure and back in one day. That's a big distance. She'll be back to her normal chakra reserves in about a day." Tsunade said to Kakashi. Kakashi nodded and let go of Ryu. They walked back to Sakura and Naruto, who Jiraiya finished talking to him and headed off.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was easily keeping up with the group. Kakashi was constantly glancing over his shoulder at her to make sure she wasn't falling behind. She was radiating an aura of annoyance and Naruto was doing his best trying to calm her down. "I'll treat you to ramen when we get back!" Naruto told her.

"Hmm...sure! I haven't had ramen for three years so why not?" Ryu replied.

"T-t-three years?! How did you last?!" Naruto asked, shocked. She shrugged.

"It was hard but I'm not as addicted as you are, Naruto." Sakura noticed Temari and landed besides her.

"Temari!" She called out and the rest of them landed not far off as Sakura explained the situation to Temari.

"What?! Gaara?!" She said startled after Sakura explaining everything. She fell quiet and frowned. "I had a bad feeling…"

"It'll take three days to reach Sunagakure from here…Let's hurry." Kakashi interrupted. Temari nodded and they headed off.

-Three Days Later-

When they arrived, the Sunagakure shinobi greeted them and told them that Kankuro had been poisoned and he was in a severe condition. "I'll examine him!" Sakura said. They rushed to the hospital and entered the room. Sakura instantly rushed to Kankuro and instantly started examining him.

An old lady suddenly rushed towards them, with an intent to attack. Naruto and Ryu instantly blocked her kicks and punches. "Why are you going at Kakashi-sensei so suddenly for?!" You wrinkled old hag!" Naruto said angrily.

"I remember that time...that White Fang of Konoha! My son's enemy...I will get revenge for him today!" The old lady replied, with malice in her eyes. Kakashi sweat-dropped and held out his hands in a calming gesture.

"Ah! No, I'm not..!" Kakashi said.

"There's no use in arguing!" The old lady said, not listening however she was stopped by the old man.

"Sister...take a good look. There's a strong resemblance, but he isn't the White Fang of Konoha." The old man interrupted. The old lady stopped and looked at Kakashi carefully. She started giggling.

"No way! I was just pretending to be stupid!" She laughed. Kakashi, Naruto and Ryu sweat-dropped. Sakura was extracting the poison from Kankuro's body and after thirty minutes, she finished.

"I don't think there's a need to worry about his life in danger anymore. I've directly removed the poison. Now I have to make an antidote for the little bit of poison left in his body. We can't relax yet." Sakura turned to the medics. "Please gather what I say!"

"You're a lot like that slug woman...that a girl like you would come." The old lady observed.

"Yes! It's because Tsunade-sama is my shishou. And my shishou said I should come here." Sakura replied. The old lady fell silent.

"Sister...time really is slowly flowing by." The old man said to the old lady.

"Right! But we're not gonna be slow! Let's go right after Akatsuki!" Naruto said, pumped up.

"Woah...Hold on, Naruto." Kakashi interrupted. He turned to the Sand shinobi. "What of the pursuit that was sent after the Akatsuki?" He asked.

"Kankuro went after them alone. There was no others."

"Then, have we completely lost them?"

"Yes...we have."

"Well, then could you guide us to where Kankuro was fighting? You have two experts on tracking. We only need a small amount of their scent to be able to track them." Kakashi said.

"That is not necessary." Kankuro interrupted. "There are two enemies. One abducted Gaara...you should follow his scent. Even assuming they split up, the other caught a bit of their clothing on Karasu's hand."

"Making a success out of a failure...you are indeed a shinobi of the Sand." Kakashi replied. Kankuro stared at Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto...Please save my brother." Kankuro said. Naruto grinned.

"Leave it all to me! Because I will be Hokage some day too! So I'll secure an advance favor from the Kazekage!" Naruto replied. "Yosh! Let's go, dattebayo!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: In the First and Fifth Chapters!~**

They were in the forest, heading towards the area where Kakashi had his ninken track the two Akatsuki members. Ryu was quiet as she was partially listening to the conversation Kakashi, Sakura and Chiyo-baasama was having. They were covering the distance pretty well until Kakashi yelled out, "Everyone stop!"

Sakura, Naruto and Chiyo was able to stop in time, but Ryu having stayed in the back and was also just half paying attention, stumbled and had to flip and land a bit farther in front of everyone. She instantly backed up quickly when she saw the enemy in front of them. "Well, this is sudden." Kakashi said.

"..This guy..those eyes." Chiyo observed.

"Uchiha Itachi!" Naruto stated. Itachi watched the group and noticed that there was an ANBU in the back.

"Itachi...ho, the child that killed his entire family?" Chiyo asked to no one in particular.

"It has been a while..Kakashi...Naruto." Itachi said. Ryu frowned. Kurama pulled her into the mindscape.

'**Kit, your chakra is a depleted more than I thought. At this rate, you'll drop from chakra exhaustion any time now.' **He warned her.

'_What?!'_ She replied, shocked.

'**You shouldn't have used hiraishin with that long distance. Going to Sunagakure and back to Konoha is normally a six day trip. Three days to arrive and three days back. You did that trip in a couple seconds. Once is a big chakra drain enough.' **Kurama informed her.

'_Tsunade said I was fine!'_ Ryu protested.

'**With a good day's rest. You and I both know you have a hard time sleeping out in the open!' **Kurama snapped. Ryu winced and sighed.

'_The Kazekage has been kidnapped for the one-tail within him! We could be next! So of course I couldn't get any sleep!'_ Ryu pointed out.

"If the bijuu is extracted, that jinchuriki will...die." Chiyo said gravely. Ryu blinked. Tears appeared in Sakura's eyes.

"You're always being moved to tears, Sakura. I told you not to worry...because I'll rescue Gaara." Naruto said to Sakura with a smile.

"Naruto…! It's you...I'm…!" Sakura said, turning to him. "And Ryu too..!" She turned to Ryu. "What about you?!" Ryu narrowed her eyes.

"Are you saying that I can't handle myself? Sure, my chakra is depleted but it doesn't mean I can't fight!" She snarled. Kakashi interrupted them.

"Let's head out!" Everyone nodded and continued the journey to the hide-out of the Akatsuki.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

As they were heading towards there, Naruto was getting more and more angry. He suddenly put on a giant burst of speed. "Naruto! Hold on!" Kakashi called to him, but Naruto just ignored him. Ryu narrowed her eyes and she also put on a burst of speed, following Naruto. "Oi! You two are too hasty!" Kakashi growled.

Naruto and Ryu landed in front of the hide-out before the rest of the group, noticing that Gai, Neji, Tenten and Lee were already there. "You're late, Kakashi." Gai said to Kakashi as he landed.

"Eh, well, we ran into a bit of trouble along the way." Kakashi replied.

"Kakashi...I hope you're not talking about me." Chiyo said.

"Everyone, you were one step ahead of us, weren't you?" Sakura said.

"Why is there ANBU here?" Gai asked Kakashi. Kakashi glanced at Ryu.

"That's Uzumaki Ryuuko. Of course she would be here. In fact she was the one that informed Tsunade-sama of the Kazekage's kidnapping." Kakashi replied to Gai. Gai nodded in understanding. Ryu sighed and took off her mask and robe, stuffing it into her backpack.

"Oh! Ryu-san!" Lee said, startled. Neji blinked in surprise, recognizing Ryu. '_She's in ANBU?' _ He thought.

"Right! Now, let's go for it, Kakashi!" Gai said. Kakashi nodded. "First off, this barrier, eh, Kakashi? How do we take it out?"

"This particular 'Five Seal Barrier' is created by 'tokens' with 'kin' written on them placed five places within the area. The 'kin' token you see in front of you, and the other tokens are in the four other places. To remove the barrier, they must all be detached." Kakashi explained.

"So where are they? The other four?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked at Neji and Neji nodded, using his Byakugan to find them.

"Found them. On top of a rock about five hundred meters north-east from here...on the trunk of a tree, on a riverbank, three hundred and fifty meters south-east...on a wall of rock about six hundred fifty meters north-west...and inside a grove about eight hundred meters south-west." Neji reported.

"Right! If it's that range, we'll use these radios! While we're taking Neji's direction, we can keep in communication, and we'll find the locations of the tokens!" Gai gave the radios to his team and one to Kakashi.

"Radio placement, okay!" Tenten said, making sure.

"Speed-wise, my team is faster. The frequency is one-seven-four, wait for our message!" Gai told Kakashi.

"Team Gai! Let's go with the full power of youth! Scatter!" Gai said to his team, and they all went in different directions. It was a couple minutes later when they got the message. Sakura was already prepared with a chakra-infused punch and Kakashi pulled the token and jumped off just as Sakura punched the giant rock into pieces.

Kakashi pointed them to go inside and the five of them jumped in. "Which of them is the jinchuriki, I wonder…?" The one with the ponytail said to no one particular. Ryu recognized him instantly. Naruto grew angry, but before he could do anything, Ryu turned and punched him in the gut.

"Don't get all hot-headed now, you idiot. Itachi probably told them what you would do!" She hissed in ear.

"But they have Gaara! I want to smash them to pieces!" Naruto snarled, his whiskers thickening and eyes red.

"You'll have your chance later!" Ryu growled back.

"Who cares about later! They're in front of me, right now!" Naruto argued.

"One of those two arguing…" Sasori said to Deidara. "They look like siblings...twins in fact. Could be either." Naruto noticed Gaara and growled.

"Gaara, What're you doing, sleeping there lazily?! Stand the hell up!" He yelled. Sakura looked at Naruto with sorrow and Ryu sighed. "Hey! Gaara, are you listening to me?!"

"Stop, Naruto..." Kakashi interrupted Naruto from yelling out again. "You should understand…" Naruto's whiskers grew thicker and canines longer.

"Yea, yea. Don't you get it? He's well dead." Deidara said, sitting on Gaara. Naruto radiated malicious intent.

"Give him back…" He snarled. "Give Gaara back! You bastards!" He said, rushing towards them. Ryu flashed in front of Naruto and stopped him again, her hands on his shoulders. Naruto glared and pushed against her. He was slowly pushing her back.

Ryu snarled at Naruto and her own whiskers thickened and her eyes also went red. She pushed against him, making them onto a completely stand still. "Calm down! Rush in there and you'll be destroyed and all of this will be for nothing!" She roared at him, pushing him back a couple feet.

Deidara and Sasori started discussing who would get the jinchuriki. However, Ryu wasn't paying attention. She was standing there, glaring at Naruto who was glaring back. "Don't try it, Naruto." She snarled. "I've had the Kyuubi under control before you even knew what the Kyuubi was."

Suddenly Deidara jumped onto his clay bird which swallowed up Gaara into it's mouth and flew out the opening. Naruto followed after him. Ryu cursed and ran after Naruto. Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, Ryu and I will handle the one outside. Sakura and Chiyo, take care of this one...but until Team Gai gets back, try not to overdo it." Kakashi said. Sakura nodded in understanding.

Ryu was standing next to Naruto and both were staring at Deidara. "So they're both jinchuriki? I wonder how that works...The Kyuubi got split up, maybe?" He wondered to himself. Kakashi radioed Gai and was calling him to come back immediately. After a couple seconds, Kakashi lifted his forehead-protector up and revealed his Sharingan.

"Are you sure it's me you want to fight, Sharingan Kakashi? I dunno if I should be saying it, but Master Sasori is stronger than I am.." Deidara said.

"Sensei, you should go help Sakura-chan, you too, Ryu. I'll save Gaara." Naruto said. Ryu snorted.

"Don't get cocky. Just because of the Kyuubi doesn't mean you're almighty, Naruto. Remember, you only have _half_." Ryu replied. Naruto jumped and rushed at Deidara, going for a direct attack and Deidara easily avoided it. He sent a clay bird which Kakashi easily stopped with a shuriken, however it exploded. A shuriken came flying from within the smoke and Kakashi defended with a kunai.

"There's no way I'm letting you take Gaara!" Naruto growled.

"You're quite the odd jinchuriki." Deidara noted. '_Wait a minute, Kakashi is there, and so is the male jinchuriki...Where's the female?!' _Deidara realised. He looked behind him and saw Ryu jumping right at him, with her fist, sparkling with lightning. He avoided it and she flipped, throwing a hiraishin kunai at him which he dodged but she flashed to it. '_Shit!' _He thought, swiftly side-stepping. Ryu caught the edge of his sleeve and cut completely through, cutting his arm slightly. Deidara cursed and flew off.

Naruto instantly started giving chase. Kakashi and Ryu started following was going ahead, leaping farther and farther. Kakashi cursed. "Don't go too far away, Naruto!" He yelled, but it was no use. Ryu suddenly appeared besides Kakashi and grabbed his arm. She used hiraishin to flash both of them to where Naruto with the kunai Ryu gave Naruto a long time ago.

"Don't worry, with me here, he can't get far." Ryu said to Kakashi without glancing at him, concentrating on keeping up with Naruto.

"What about your chakra?" Kakashi asked. Ryu smiled.

"I'm fine. As long as I don't hiraishin large distances, I can basically do it as much as I want." Ryu replied. Kakashi blinked in surprise. '_She used to only to be able to do so a dozen times a day and that was only if she wasn't using her chakra for anything else.'_ He thought.

"You have indeed grown stronger." Kakashi said. Ryu grinned.

"Of course!" Ryu and Kakashi caught up to Naruto and she slapped the back of his head. "I told you to calm down!"

"It's alright, we'll definitely get Gaara back." Kakashi said to Naruto to reassure him.

"Please note the _we._" Ryu added.

"Listen up, Naruto. You're not used to this type of opponent. You specialize in close combat. so this long distance fighter type is a bad match for you." Kakashi said to Naruto. "There are only two ways to defeat an opponent like this."

"What are they?" Naruto asked.

"The first is draw the opponent into short-range and defeat them. The other is outdo your opponent with your own long-distance attacks." Kakashi explained.

"How do I do that?" Naruto frowned.

"Either a companion who specializes in long-distance attacks or someone who can use long-range combat support ninjutsu must be in your team. If that's not the situation...defeating the enemy is impossible. Well, unless you have a brain like Shikamaru." Kakashi said.

"Get to the point!" Naruto snarled. "What are you and Ryu?"

"Ryu is a close-combat specialist like you are. Though she knows a couple of long-distance ninjutsu. And I am a jounin who has a brain like Shikamaru and long-range combat support ninjutsu." Kakashi replied.

"Then we have what we need!" Naruto said.

"It's not that easy…" Ryu said to Naruto.

"No matter how much we follow, he's not giving us an opportunity. He's someone who entered Sunagakure by himself and defeated Gaara. Above all, he is a member of Akatsuki. We have to create an opening here. All three of us." Kakashi said. "I'll tell you the plan when you have taken in all of what I have said."

The three of them continued on following Deidara. Kakashi started gathering chakra. Naruto was no longer raging to get Gaara back as much but he was getting impatient. It was about ten minutes later when Naruto cracked a bit.

"Kakashi-sensei, still?!" He said, impatiently.

"Don't be in such a hurry...since I don't have as much chakra as you...it takes time but...I'm ready now." Kakashi opened his eye. Ryu widened her eyes. '_This feeling!' _ She thought.

"W-what! When did you…?!" Ryu said to Kakashi. Kakashi turned his head to Ryu.

"What did you think I did for the last three years? Sit still?" He replied.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's okay if you screw up...'cause I'll finish it off!" Naruto said to Kakashi.

"Yea...if you get the chance." Kakashi replied. He looked at Deidara and used Kamui. Deidara's arm started warping and the area around him did also. Ryu noticed that Kakashi winced a bit and then Deidara's arm was cut off, and disappeared. Kakashi covered his eye. Ryu reached for him but he shook his head.

Kakashi uncovered his eye and tried again, this time aiming for Deidara's head. However, the pain increased and he had to close his eye again. "Don't overdo it!" Ryu scolded, her hand instantly encased in healing chakra and covered his eye, healing it. Relief instantly replaced the pain.

Naruto had already appeared beside Deidara with a Rasengan ready to go. Deidara jumped off his bird and dodged, which made Naruto hit the bird instead and it was destroyed. Naruto used Kage Bunshin to catch the head, which held Gaara. His clones started digging into the clay to reveal Gaara.

Another clone was standing besides Kakashi and Ryu. "Kakashi-sensei! Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yea. With Ryu healing me, I think I'll be fine." Kakashi replied.

"I'll get you." Naruto snarled to Deidara.

"Gotcha, gotcha. I'll fight you again soon.." Deidara replied.

"You've let your guard down." Kakashi remarked. Naruto came up from nowhere, punching Deidara in the face with his rage. Ryu watched as Naruto started brutally attacking Deidara. After he used Rasengan, the smoke cleared to reveal a substitution of clay.

Red chakra started leaking from Naruto, forming a cloak. '_Shit!' _Ryu thought. "Kakashi...do you think you can handle it here? I can stop Naruto." Another tail started forming. "I'll knock him out, so save that chakra suppression seal when I'm not around." She told Kakashi. He nodded.

The cloak formed around Ryu also, however it instantly showed three tails. She also showed more control of the chakra. She leaped from the tree branch and raised a fist, infused with enough chakra in instantly knock out Naruto. He turned and before he could react, she punched his jaw and he went flying.

Naruto landed heavily against a tree and struggled to stay conscious. Ryu appeared in front of him and stared into his eyes, right into his mindscape, which held the Yang Kurama. "Go back to your sleep!" She growled at Yang Kurama.

"**How dare you intrude in this place, get out!" **He roared, pushing at her but she remained in her spot.

"_**Sleep!"**_ Ryu and the Yin Kurama roared. Yang Kurama grumbled and retracted his chakra from Naruto and the cloak disappeared. Ryu blinked and Naruto was bent over, panting. Ryu started healing his head, to relieve the throbbing pain she inflicted. Sakura and Chiyo landed by them.

"Finally caught up…" Sakura said.

"You found this place well." Kakashi remarked. Sakura shrugged.

"We saw where the enemy was flying before." She said.

"You are still...having trouble here...it seems." Chiyo observed.

"Sakura...you two of you did it." Naruto said, wincing a bit.

"Yes...more importantly...what of Gaara?" Chiyo asked. Naruto looked up to where his clones were. They were supporting Gaara's body. "Alright…" Suddenly, sounds of fighting reaches their ears. Everyone looked up.

"Team Gai…" Kakashi said. Deidara jumped to the body of the bird and pulled some of the clay off and started chewing it. "Everyone watch out! That person's a long-distance type who attacks with explosions!" Kakashi warned. Neji suddenly shouted out,

"Everyone, hurry, get away from here!" Kakashi glanced at Ryu and she shook her head.

"I can't transport that many people even with Kurama's chakra!" The explosion happened and everyone was running but as they were running, it suddenly disappeared.

"What's going on?" Gai said, looking back at the direction the explosion was happening. Ryu glanced at Kakashi and noticed that he started falling back. She appeared behind him and supported his weight, sitting back to back with him.

"What in the world...did you do?" Sakura asked, with wide eyes.

"I sent him and the explosion to another dimension." Kakashi replied. "...more importantly, is everyone safe?"

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They were standing in a field, around Gaara. Sakura shook her head, signifying that he truly was dead. Naruto's eyes started watering. Chiyo kneeled down by his body and set his hands on his chest. A glow surrounded her hands. "What are you doing?!" Naruto asked.

"She's bringing Gaara back." Sakura replied. Chiyo winced and cursed.

"Not enough chakra…" She muttered.

"Please use my chakra!" Naruto said to Chiyo. "Old lady...can you do that?"

"Put yours hands on top of mine." Chiyo replied. The chakra surrounding their hands flared up, stronger than it was before. Ryu was sitting besides Kakashi, who was also doing so. She was frowning at him.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

"You're exhausted." Ryu replied. Kakashi shrugged.

"I saved everyone didn't I?" He said.

"Yes, but…" Ryu sighed. He reached up and ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry about me." Kakashi said, eye-smiling at her. Ryu blinked in surprise, Gaara sat up.

"Gaara." Naruto said. Gaara looked at Naruto.

"...Naruto." Gaara looked around and noticed at the Sunagakure shinobi around him. "...This…"

"Everyone came running...to save you!" Naruto said, with a wide smile.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

_Three Days Later_

Team Gai and Team Kakashi was saying their goodbyes to Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. Naruto and Gaara shook hands. Kakashi was leaning on Gai, since his body refused to move much because of his over usage of his Sharingan. Gai was about to put Kakashi on his back when Ryu stopped him.

"I can take over from here." She said. Gai glanced at her.

"Your small body won't be able to support his weight." Gai refused. Ryu shook her head.

"I'm not going to carry him all the way. I'm going to hiraishin with him to Konoha." She replied. Kakashi frowned.

"No. I'd rather arrive to Konoha on Gai's back." He said. Ryu sighed.

"My chakra is recovered to full. The trip won't take as much as toll on me as going back and forth." She snarled. "Now stop being stubborn, you need as much rest as possible." Gai saw the point in what she said.

"Alright." Gai said, nodding to Ryu. She took Kakashi's arm and slung it over her neck. Gai released Kakashi and Kakashi's weight fell over to Ryu.

"I'll see you all in three days time." Ryu said and disappeared with Kakashi, leaving behind a yellow flash.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Kakashi was laying in a hospital bed with the blankets covering half of his face. "Ahh...here again.." He sighed.

"That's totally your own fault." Ryu's voice said from besides him. Kakashi turned his head without the blanket falling and frowned.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. Ryu shrugged.

"I don't have any missions. Tsunade-baachan isn't giving me any and I don't want to stay at home all alone so might as well visit you." She replied.

"I don't think it's visiting hours though." Kakashi said, pointing it out. Ryu snorted.

"Like that's going to stop me. Tsunade already told the staff that I would be here so no problem. I can visit whenever I want." She grinned. "Anyways, why are you keeping your face covered? I've already seen it once."

"Don't want any unexpected visitors to see my face." Kakashi replied. Just as he said that, the door was knocked. "Come in." Kakashi called out. Ryu turned her head and noticed who it was and recognized him instantly.

"Ah! Tenzo-senpai!" She said, jumping up and running up to him with a grin. He shook his head.

"I'm Yamato at the moment." He replied. Ryu's expression turned into understanding.

"You're on a mission." She stated. "Oh well, can I still hug you?" She asked. Yamato laughed and nodded. Ryu hugged him tightly. Kakashi, who was watching suddenly felt a twinge of jealousy.

"What did you come here?" Kakashi asked Yamato.

"Ah, to alert you, Kakashi-senpai, that I'm the temporary leader of Team Kakashi." Yamato said. Kakashi nodded. "Well, I'll be off then, we leave in an hour. Will you not be coming, Ryu? Since you are also technically, a member of Team Kakashi." Ryu shook her head.

"No, I'm staying here and technically, I'm a member of Team Wolf." Ryu grinned. Yamato sweat-dropped.

"I think the name you mean is Team _Demon_." He replied. Ryu laughed. "See you two later." He said and disappeared.

Kakashi watched Ryu as she turned and returned to her spot, sitting besides Kakashi on a chair. He observed her face and expression. She frowned at him. "What are you staring at so intently?" She asked. Kakashi's eyes followed the movement of her lips. "Hey, anyone awak-" Kakashi sat up and reached his hand over to Ryu, pulling him towards him.

Ryu who wasn't expecting it, put up no resistance and her eyes widened as she neared his face.

"W-what are you doin-mmmph!"

**Teehee~ I hope you guys don't hate me for how I ended this chapter!~**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters of Naruto! (I need to find a Kakashi plush though…) I only own Ryu and where my plot begins to deviate and added scenes!**

Kakashi's face was extremely close to Ryu's. In fact, if she licked her lip she would probably lick his also. A furious blush was on her cheeks and a smile had made its way onto Kakashi's face. "What are you doing, Kakashi?" She asked. He chuckled a bit.

"I don't know." He replied and crashed his lips against hers. It was her first kiss. Honestly, she never imagined it would be with Kakashi. Even as a child, she was more boyish, having to have had toughen up to the villagers' hateful words directed at Naruto and her. She had thrown herself into training to be the strongest kunoichi that she could be.

She could feel his hand move down, to her waist and suddenly pinched her side, making her gasp and slightly flinch closer to him. He took the advantage of her gasp and slipped his tongue in. He gently coaxed her own to join him. Ryu's hands went up and buried themselves into Kakashi's hair.

Kakashi gently pulled away but he lingered and gently kissed her once more. Knocking startled the both of them apart, and Ryu had a bright red face and Kakashi returned to laying down and covering his face with the blanket. Before Kakashi could say "Come in." to the visitor, Ryu disappeared with a yellow flash.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

It was the fourth day Team Kakashi had been gone and Ryu was avoiding Kakashi. Each time she let her mind wander, she would think of the kiss and her face would go as red as Hinata's whenever Naruto was near. Tsunade called Ryu to her office with an ANBU that had a Hawk mask.

She vaguely recognized the voice but couldn't place it. "Ne, Hawk-kun, I recognize your voice from somewhere but I can't place it. Care to tell me?" She said to the ANBU she was following.

"ANBU are not suppose to reveal their identities to others." Hawk replied.

"Oh, calm on. I'm ANBU too! You can tell me." Ryu pouted. Hawk shook his head.

"I know you are, Ryu." Hawk said. Ryu blinked. She frowned and put on a burst of speed, surprising Hawk when she caught him up to him and reached for his mask. Hawk dodged last minute but Ryu settled for pulling the hood off. She recognized the hairstyle instantly.

"Did you think you could hide the fact from me long?! Ne, Sasuke?! Even if I didn't do anything I could have just gone to headquarters and looked!" Ryu said, grinning. Sasuke sighed and shook his head.

"She just had to send me to get you…" He muttered under his breath.

"You'll have to call me senpai! Since I was in ANBU way longer than you." Ryu said, nudging Sasuke. He narrowed his eyes.

"Rejected." He denied.

"Call. Me. Senpai, okay?" She smiled, however the air around her said, 'Or else.' Sasuke gritted his teeth in irritation.

"Fine." He said reluctantly. Ryu's eyes shined with victory. "Anyways, how's Kakashi?" He asked. Ryu's face instantly flushed red.

"H-he's fine! J-just stuck on bed red for a week, dattebane!" She replied hastily, starting towards the Hokage Tower again. Sasuke frowned and followed. When they finally arrived, Tsunade yet again threw another paperweight at Ryu. Ryu caught it easily before it could hit Sasuke since she had dodged instinctively.

"You called?" Ryu asked. Tsunade nodded.

"I need you to deliver something for me to Kakashi." She said.

"W-what! Why not have Sasuke deliver it?!" Ryu protested, she was trying her hardest to not blush but a pink twinge showed. Tsunade blinked and then smirked.

"Oh? Did he finally act upon it?" Tsunade said curiously. Ryu frowned.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ryu asked.

"Oh, nothing. Sakura has told me that you liked Kakashi. But she didn't know how to help you so I kindly directed her to search up family bloodlines." Tsunade replied.

"What! So that's where she got the information about the Hatake line and their…." Ryu trailed off. Tsunade nodded.

"So, it's an uttermost importance that _you_ deliver this." Tsunade said, handing Ryu an envelope. Ryu sighed, defeated.

"Is there anything else?" Ryu asked. Tsunade shook her head and dismissed her.

As Ryu arrived at Kakashi's room, she heard voices and frowned. She knocked and opened the door. She saw that it was Naruto, Sakura and someone else she didn't recognize.

"Ah! Ryu!" Sakura said, waving. Ryu smiled.

"When did you guys get back?" Ryu asked.

"Not too long ago." Sakura replied. Ryu walked over and met Kakashi's gaze and blushed. Sakura caught the blush and looked between the two then grinned.

"Anyways, who is this?" Ryu asked, her gaze at the black haired male.

"Oh, this is Sai. He replaced Sasuke on Team Kakashi because Sasuke is too busy with ANBU missions." Sakura answered. Ryu nodded and stuck out her hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Uzumaki Ryu, Naruto's twin sister." She greeted. Sai took her hand and smiled back.

"Can I call you…-" Sai said, about to give Ryu a nickname but Ryu cut him off.

"Ryu. Just Ryu and _nothing else_." Ryu said with a smile that promised pain if he didn't do so.

"Alright…" Sai said hesitantly.

"Anyways, was I interrupting anything?" Ryu asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"No, I was about done explaining." He replied. Ryu noticed the Icha Icha book in his hand. She narrowed her eyes at Kakashi and he sighed, closing the book. Naruto blinked at the exchange and leaned over to Sakura, whispering,

"Do you think there is something going on between those two?" He asked. Sakura grinned.

"Hopefully!" She replied excitedly. The door banged open.

"How are you doing, Kakashi?" Asuma said.

"Asuma-sensei, at least knock!" Ino scolded.

"Hi!" Choji said through his munching. Shikamaru greeted Naruto and Sakura. Ryu however was having a glare fight with Kakashi. He refused to back down and so did Ryu. The tension rose and everyone felt a sudden chill.

Everyone turned and they blinked twice to make sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them. What they saw were sparks flying between Kakashi and Ryu in their intense glare fight. But they got the feeling it was like a fight between a wolf and fox and neither would back down.

Asuma suggested that his team and Team Kakashi go to BBQ and that it was on him, since he needed to talk to Kakashi about something. With one last glare, Ryu turned and went with them.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They were all talking and eating cheerfully with each other, but Ryu wasn't paying much attention. She was doing the motions of eating but not really processing them. Sakura kept on giving Ryu some looks that said she really wanted to know what's going on between Kakashi and her.

Sakura was just about to ask Ryu when after Ino introduced herself to Sai, he gave her the nickname, 'Pretty Lady', which made Sakura mad because he had given her the nickname, 'Ugly Dog.'

"SHANNAARRROOOO!" Sakura yelled, raising fist to punch Sai as hard as she could. Naruto grabbed Sakura and was trying his hardest to stop her. Naruto called out desperately to Ryu.

"Help me, Ryu! I think you're the only one with the strength to stop Sakura completely because you were also trained by Tsunade-baachan, dattebayo!" Ryu sighed and leaned over to whisper in Sakura's ear.

"Kakashi kissed me." She said simply. Sakura instantly stopped trying to punch Sai and turned to Ryu.

"REALLY?!" Sakura said excitedly. Ryu nodded. Sakura pumped a fist in the air.

"Yes! Now time to get you two together! I have to get shishou in on this…" Sakura said murmuring to herself. Ryu shook her head and sighed, her cheeks pink.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The next day was one that Ryu had to herself. She was cleaning up the apartment she shared with Naruto. Since he was out training with Kakashi, she would have no one bothering her, or so she thought. When she finished cleaning Naruto's room, which was beyond messy, Ryu heard the knocking on the door.

When she opened the door, she really wished she didn't. Standing there was Sakura, Ino and Hinata. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked.

"Operation Get Kakashi to ask you out on a date, of course!" Sakura replied. Ryu shook her head.

"Oh, no way! Do you remember the last time I tried? I got scolded!" Ryu said, protesting. Sakura grinned.

"This time, it will work." She reassured. Ino and Sakura grabbed Ryu's arms and dragged her to Sakura's house with Hinata following.

It was hours later when the three of them relented on giving Ryu a make-over. They had curled her hair in gentle waves and gave her some color on her lips, making it soft 'kissable' pink as they stated it.

They gave her a whole new outfit, telling her that the ANBU outfit she always wore was not pretty at all. The outfit was a light blue with one side being sleeveless and the other being a long sleeve that flowed down, which was also good for hiding kunai. They gave her thigh-high boots which with the outfit covered the right side, going down to her knee and leaving the left side showing, which was fine because she was wearing shorts that went with the outfit. The outfit showed off her breasts, because there was a corset-like cloth that went across her midriff. Lasting there was an arm-bind that went from the middle of her bicep to her elbow.

"There, you're done!" Sakura announced. Ino nodded, agreeing. Ryu smiled and bent down to grab her weapon bags and was skillfully able to hide them in the outfit but still allow her to easily access them. "Now go to Kakashi! He's training Naruto so I think you know where he is." Sakura said, pushing Ryu out the door.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu arrived at the training area as Kakashi was explaining chakra types to Naruto. Kakashi gave Naruto the paper used to tell one's type and after a second or so of concentration, the paper in Naruto's hand split into two. Ryu walked up and Kakashi turned to her, his eye widening in response.

"Ohh! Ryu, you changed your outfit!" Naruto said, surprised. "Are you still in ANBU then?" He asked. Ryu nodded.

"Yea, but I thought of changing what I wore for a bit. I wanted a change." She replied. "Does it look nice?" She asked, twisting her body right and left. Naruto nodded and gave a thumbs up. Kakashi blinked and turned his face away.

"Honestly, Sakura, Ino and Hinata chose this for me. It's easy to move in yet also pretty at the same time. And it covers my ANBU tattoo so that's a plus." She said, moving her right shoulder, which was where it was. She was looking at Kakashi pointedly and he refused to meet her eyes.

"It's nice on you." He said, nodding in her direction but still not meeting her eyes.

"Oh! Sis, what's your chakra type?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"Lightning and Wind. Though I have more control over lightning than wind…" Ryu replied, shrugging. "Are you going to use Kage Bunshin to train?" Naruto nodded.

"How many do I make, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. Kakashi pointed to the tree he was standing in front of.

"That many." He said, talking about the leaves. Naruto nodded and went to his training. Ryu pouted at Kakashi which he noticed and blinked, startled.

"What?" He asked.

"Just it's nice? Nothing more?" Ryu replied. Kakashi sighed and reached over to ruffle her hair but she ducked under his hand. "I'm not a kid, anymore!" Ryu protested. His eye softened and he pulled her into a hug.

"I know you aren't." He said softly. Ryu relished the warmth that radiated from Kakashi. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tighter.

"We haven't gone on a mission together in a while." Ryu said into his chest.

"I agree." He replied. "But our missions are rather dangerous." Ryu sighed.

"I think Tsunade is trying to keep me from going on any missions alone. Now that Akatsuki is actively going around and going after jinchuriki." Kakashi froze up and hugged Ryu closer to him. Ryu wiggled a bit from the discomfort.

"I think Tsunade should. Don't go on a mission without telling me first, alright? And never alone." He said seriously, holding Ryu out in front of him and into her eyes. She frowned.

"What about Naruto, huh?" She asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"He's still ranked as a genin, he'll always at least be in a four-man squad. It's _you_ I'm worried about. You're a jounin and ANBU. You can be sent out on S-rank missions." He reached up and gently caressed her cheek. He leaned down and gently placed his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes and softly whispered, "I don't think I will be able to handle it if I lost you too."

Ryu closed her eyes and listened to his breathing. A soft pressure on her lips made her open her eyes. Kakashi had gently brushed his clothed lips against hers. A cough made Kakashi stand up straight and Ryu turn her head with her cheeks tinted pink. "Kakashi-sensei, Isn't there anybody else in Konoha with the 'Wind' element?" Naruto asked.

"...You want to get some tips?" Kakashi replied. Naruto nodded. "Well, there is somebody but...he should be playing shogi around this time." Naruto frowned a bit confused.

"Asuma, he means." Ryu interrupted. "He often plays shogi with Shikamaru." Naruto hit his fist against his palm in understanding.

"Ok!" He ran off to go find Asuma. Ryu watched as he ran off. She turned to Kakashi and smiled.

"Well, it's time for me to go too. I think Sakura, Ino and Hinata are waiting for me to come back to see if their plan was successful or not." She shrugged. Kakashi blinked and tilted his head to the side in curiousity.

"Was it successful?" He asked. Ryu shrugged one shoulder.

"Don't know. Their plan after all was to get you to take me out on a date. Either way I think it was successful." She replied. Kakashi sweat-dropped. Ryu twisted this way and that, looking at the outfit she was wearing. "I think I'll keep this outfit. It makes me feel like a girl. I'll just wear my black cloak over this if I'm going as ANBU."

"Think that's a good idea?" Kakashi frowned. Ryu nodded.

"I can move quite easily in this and I don't feel that anything is restraining me. With this sleeve, I can hide quite a couple of weapons if needed." She said, pointing it out. "But if it's a strictly ANBU mission, I'll wear the standard." Kakashi nodded in understanding.

"Then, I'll be off then." She waved to Yamato and disappeared in a flash of yellow.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The next day, Ryu was heading towards the training grounds where Naruto was supposed to be training when she noticed them at Ramen Ichiraku. She walked in and sat beside Kakashi and greeted Teuchi and ordered the same as Naruto.

"How is the training?" Ryu asked.

"He mastered changing his chakra to wind." Kakashi replied. Ryu grinned.

"I wonder how well he's going to master it." She said thoughtfully. Kakashi sweat-dropped.

"I don't think he's going to master it to the point you did." He sighed. "I saw that punch you pulled on Deidara. Not only did you have it infused with chakra, making it already extremely dangerous to even get _lightly_ punched but you even changed your chakra into lightning?! I think a punch from you now is just plain old _deadly._"

Ryu still had her grin on her face. "I'm called a demon, why not live up to it?" Her order was placed in front of her and she dug in. Though she was eating it rather quickly, it was quiet. Kakashi stared at her for a bit. He had already finished his ramen.

"You've learned how to eat it quickly from me didn't you?" He asked. Ryu nodded, swallowing.

"Don't you remember? Whenever we were on missions, you told me to eat quickly whenever we had a break from heading to our destination because enemy ninja could attack at any moment and you of course had already finished your food." Ryu replied, continuing to eat and swallowing once more. "It took my stomach a while to get used to having food that fast." She frowned, sending a glare at Kakashi.

Naruto placed his bowl down after finishing the soup. Ryu finished about the same time he did. "Alright! I'm re-energized now, let's get back to work!" Naruto said, about to stand up with Kakashi stopped him.

"Easy. I have to explain a few things first." Kakashi said. Naruto reluctantly sat back down. "Naruto..I've got something extremely cool to show you.."

"Cool?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Well, I also have a number of things to explain before we end our lunch break."

"What?! I've had more than enough explanation already!" Naruto said, protesting.

"Don't worry...I have a way with words so I'll get you in the mood, no problem." Kakashi reassured. Ryu sweat-dropped. Kakashi stood up and Naruto and Ryu followed him. "Yamato, here, if you wouldn't mind." Kakashi said, telling Yamato to treat them.

"What!? Isn't it the senpai that's supposed to pay in these situations?" Yamato protested.

"In my eyes, once I respect you, senpai and kouhai mean nothing...granted...you're pretty much the only kouhai I've ever respected…" Kakashi replied, then sighed. "Although, I suppose I should…" He trailed off. Yamato stood up, feeling flattered.

"Oh no! I'll take care of everything!" Yamato insisted. Ryu sweat-dropped and quietly snarled at Kakashi,

"You ever do that to me and I'll make sure you'll regret it."

"I know better than too." He replied. The four of them went to the training grounds that they had been previously using. Kakashi started explaining the difficulty in making a new jutsu and Ryu quickly lost interest.

As Kakashi was explaining, Ryu reached up to Kakashi's left ear which was covered by his hair. She felt along his ear, which he did his best at ignoring her and felt the piercing in his ear which held the chakra receiver that was connected to the earring in her left.

Ryu sent a bit of chakra into the earring in hers and felt the one in his ear warm up a bit. "What are you doing, Ryu?" Kakashi said, jolting Ryu out of her slight daze. He had finished explaining everything to Naruto.

"Did you get this, knowing that you would give me it's partner to me?" She asked, releasing her hold on his ear. He nodded, pulling out his Icha Icha book and opened it to the page where he had left off. She frowned but didn't do anything about it.

A loud clap of thunder startled Ryu and it started pouring heavily. She looked up at the sky with narrowed eyes. "I'm gonna go home in safety from this rain." She said. Kakashi nodded and Ryu disappeared.

It was a couple hours later when she got the news that Asuma had died in battle. Ryu stood by Naruto who was comforting Konohamaru. She silently walked over to Kakashi and without a word, weaved her fingers with his, tightly gripping his hand. He silently understood what she was trying to say and gripped her hand in return.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Chapters One, Five and Ten!~**

Ryu had a disapproving look on her face and Kakashi was avoiding her gaze. She was currently bandaging his right hand. Naruto was still training his new jutsu. "Did you really have to test it?" She asked, shaking her head.

"Of course. That's how I know how strong it is." Kakashi replied. Ryu rolled her eyes.

"That's like I suddenly wanted to test how strong my punch is with lightning chakra against you." She said. He sweat-dropped.

"I'd die." He said simply.

"That's my point! You could have died!" Ryu argued.

"It's an incomplete jutsu." Kakashi fired back.

"That makes it even more dangerous! You didn't know what could have happened!" Ryu snarled. Kakashi stared at her in surprise. "There I'm done." She said, finished with bandaging his hand and she let go of it and it dropped to his side.

"You put your hair up." Kakashi stated. Ryu ran tucked a stray hair behind her ear and nodded.

"So that it doesn't get in the way. I know better than to let my hair down. Only special occasions." His eye softened and Ryu could see affection in his eye. He leaned down but stopped. He sighed and shook his head.

"Well, I'll be off." Kakashi said, walking off. Ryu's jaw dropped. She turned and threw a rock at his head. It the intended target.

"Jerk!" She yelled at him. Kakashi chuckled.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Hours later, Ryu eventually cracked and went to go find Kakashi. She looked everywhere and finally went to Tsunade.

"He went with Ino, Shikamaru and Choji to the place where the enemies said they'd return too." She replied.

"What! I'll go after them as reinforcement!" Ryu said, preparing to hiraishin to the kunai that she knew was in Kakashi's weapon bag.

"No. You'll go with Team Kakashi, which I will be sending as reinforcement as soon as they gather here." Tsunade said, with a serious expression on her face. Right on cue, Yamato, Naruto, Sakura and Sai walked into Tsunade's office. "You all know what you are to do?" The five of them nodded. "Dismissed!"

They were going as quick as they could with Ryu leading. Yamato frowned and called out to her, "Not too fast, Ryu! You'll leave us behind!" She slowed down slightly but not by much. She just simply had a bad feeling and was wanting to go faster.

Ryu jumped into an open area and she noticed Kakashi, Ino and Choji unable to move because they were being held down by some trendicles from the Akatsuki member. She quickly threw a hiraishin kunai which missed, but it was meant to. She flashed to it and with a kick infused with as much chakra as she could, Ryu kicked the Akatsuki member, who simply didn't see it coming and he went flying.

Naruto, Yamato, Sakura and Sai landed a couple seconds after. "Sorry, we're late." Naruto said.

"Phew." Kakashi breathed, relieved. "Good timing. Especially Ryu."

"Sakura, Sai, Naruto and Ryu!" Ino said, with a happy expression.

"Aaahhh...Reinforcements. We're saved." Choji commented.

"This is the first time I've seen you look so uncool...this opponent must be strong." Yamato observed.

"Where's Shikamaru?" Naruto asked.

"Fighting in a different location with another enemy." Choji replied, with a slightly worried expression.

"Would two of you go to Shikamaru's side? A long-distance type and medical type is best…" Kakashi said, slamming his hand on the ground and summoning Pakkun.

"Follow me." Pakkun said. Yamato ordered Sakura and Sai to go and they nodded, following Pakkun.

"Kuku, all that happened is the variation I have for hearts I can take increased…" Kakuzu stated. Naruto stepped up and with a serious expression on his face, he said,

"I'll take it from here. Ryu, you should just heal the others." She frowned and was about to protest but Kakashi shook his head. "Let him. You won't be there all the time." Ryu opened her mouth to start arguing but closed it.

"Are you injured anywhere?" Ryu asked Kakashi, running her hands over his body, looking for any broken bones or fractures.

"O-oi! What are you doing?!" Kakashi said, startled.

"Checking for broken bones or any fractures of course." Ryu replied, seeing nothing wrong with what she was doing. He sweat-dropped. '_She's rather innocent in __**that**__.' _He thought. Ino had pink cheeks on her face and Choji whispered to Ino,

"They're rather intimate." Ino shook her head.

"I don't think Ryu knows much about _that_. She wasn't trained by Jiraiya and I think Kakashi would be a bit scared to do anything, seeing as Ryu is pretty strong herself and he'd had to deal with Tsunade-sama's wrath." She replied. Suddenly, a loud screeching sound hit everyone's ears and Ryu could feel the intense amount of chakra.

She turned around, alarmed but noticed that it was coming from Naruto. The wind from his jutsu started blowing and her hair whipped along with it. "W-what is this?" She said, her eyes wide.

"A-amazing…" Ino said in awe.

"That chakra. It's…." Choji trailed off, not knowing the words to describe it.

"Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto called out. "We're going to decide it with this!" He rushed towards Kakuzu with his clones. Choji started running with Naruto.

"I'll help too!" Choji said but Yamato stopped him from going.

"No, don't get close to Naruto! You'll get hit by it too!" Yamato warned. Naruto cleverly used his clones for distraction and he got in close and was about to his Kakuzu but it suddenly disappeared.

"...What? Did he hint him?" Ino asked. Yamato shook his head.

"His jutsu disappeared." He said. Kakashi frowned.

"Just like the unpredictable ninja to do this. Yamato, Ryu!" He said, running towards Naruto.

"Yea!" Yamato acknowledge, using his wood element to attack Kakuzu from where he was standing, and while Kakuzu dodged, Kakashi went in to cut the trendicles binding Naruto and jumped back, running back to the other two.

Ryu came from the air with both fists sparkling with lightning. Kakuzu jumped back and Ryu landed, throwing punches at an incredible speed. Kakuzu was about to retaliate when Ryu opened her fists, spreading her fingers out and the lightning chakra shot out like spears, making him go on the defensive once again to dodge all ten of them.

She flashed back to group not a second later and heard Naruto telling Yamato and Kakashi to give him one more try. "The opponent is Akatsuki! If you do the same thing, he'll just dodge it!" Ino pointed out.

"Now that the feint is exposed, it won't work anymore! Let's all do this together." Choji suggested.

"That is true...in this situation right now, it's six versus one. There's no need to cross a dangerous bridge." Kakashi stated.

"Kakashi-sensei. Do you remember what you said during my training? That 'the only shinobi that can surpass the Fourth Hokage is you...that's what I believe.' It's true that teamwork is important...and I know that. But right now, I want to cross that dangerous bridge by myself. If I can't get to the other side, then I'll stay a kid forever. Please don't do anything to remove that bridge." Naruto explained.

"Heh...what do you think, Yamato?" Kakashi asked.

"You still haven't seen it have you?" Yamato asked. "Naruto is different from before."

"Then it's decided." Kakashi said. "Go Naruto!" As Naruto dashed towards Kakuzu, Kakuzu changed and Ryu shivered from the shape he changed too.

"Disgusting." She commented.

"Not only did his form change, he's building up chakra too." Yamato observed.

"Preparing himself against Naruto's jutsu, huh…" Kakashi frowned. Naruto used Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and made three clothes of himself then started forming Rasenshuriken. After he did so, he rushed towards Kakuzu with three clones leading the way. However, Kakuzu jumped into the air, ignoring the three clones and going right for him. Ryu's eyes widened and she started activating hiraishin when Kakashi grabbed her.

"No! You'll get caught too!" He said, struggling to keep her from rushing to Naruto.

"That's my brother!" She argued, twisting in Kakashi's grip. The trendicles went straight for Naruto and he could do nothing to avoid it. A poof of smoke and she saw it was a clone. Ryu calmed down and saw the real Naruto in the air, behind Kakuzu with a Rasenshuriken. It hit successfully and Kakuzu went flying and then the jutsu went off, creating a spiral that wind blew strongly from. The shockwave headed straight towards Kakashi, Ryu, Yamato, Ino and Choji.

Ino let out a squeal of surprise from the shockwave. "Haha...alright..I did it." Naruto said, laying on the ground completely exhausted.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"Great work, everyone." Tsunade congratulated. "However, Akatsuki is still out there...so, don't let your guard down just yet. For now though, you all can take a break you deserve it." She dismissed.

Ryu went over to Sakura and Ino. "Let's go to the bath house later, shall we? I want to relax." She said to them. Sakura and Ino agreed instantly.

"Let's talk about girl things while there, yea?" Sakura suggested.

"Of course. We're focusing on Ryu, right?" Ino replied with a grin. Ryu blinked in surprised.

"W-what?! Why me?!" She protested, backing up and bumping right into Kakashi.

"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked Ryu. She froze up and saw Sakura's and Ino's gazes and slowly turned to Kakashi. Her face became bright red and she shook her head really fast.

"N-nothing!" She replied. Kakashi saw this as a chance to tease Ryu and leaned in. She leaned back.

"Oh, really? Are you sure?" He said, in a teasing tone.

"Ah-hem. Kakashi, please restrain yourself." Tsunade interrupted. Kakashi sighed and straightened up. Ryu took her chance and escaped with a flash in her place.

-Hours Later-

Sakura, Ino and Ryu were sitting in the large bath, relaxing. "Has Kakashi-sensei asked you on a date yet?" Ino asked.

"D-date? N-no." Ryu replied, blushing.

"Aw! He needs too!" Sakura said. Ryu shook her head.

"There's no need. Plus our age difference is rather big." She sighed. Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"That does not matter. Love is love, no matter what! As long as you two are happy." She argued. "We are your friends and will support you!" Ino nodded, agreeing. Ryu teared up in happiness and hugged the both of them.

"Thank you!" She said. Ino and Sakura smiled. She let go of them. "Naruto is staying in the hospital tonight, is he not?" She asked Sakura.

Sakura nodded. "Just to make sure. You can't be too careful." Ryu agreed. She stood up and stretched.

"Ah, I haven't been on one of my missions in quite a while. I feel like I'm becoming unfit…" Ryu commented. '_Unfit?'_ Ino and Sakura thought. They observed Ryu, especially her chest area and felt jealousy. She had grown breasts which were the size where all men would seek after and make all women be jealous but they weren't Tsunade's size. More closer to Hinata's but not exactly.

They looked down at their own chest and sighed. "What's wrong?" Ryu asked. They shook their heads.

"I think it's unlikely for us kunoichi to become unfit." Ino commented.

"Mm...True, but I am a bit softer than what I used to be…" Ryu shrugged. "Oh well. Not that I can do anything about it. Tsunade-baachan refuses to send me on any ANBU missions because of the Akatsuki."

They continued talking about nonsense things and it was about thirty minutes later when they got out of the bath house, giggling with each other. "Ah!" Sakura said, noticing Kakashi, who was standing in front of the bath house, reading an Icha Icha book. He looked up and noticed the three. He closed his book and put it away before standing up and greeted the three girls,

"Yo!" Sakura and Ino shared a secret smile.

"Ah! I just remembered that I have something to do!" Sakura said.

"Oh! Me too!" Ino added.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Ryu!" They said together, walking off. Ryu sweat-dropped at their very obvious attempt to leave Kakashi and her alone. She sighed and shook her head at them.

"Well, since they left, and you have no one to walk you home...May I?" Kakashi asked. Ryu nodded. They started walking and silence ensued between the two.

"How was the bath?" Kakashi said, breaking the silence.

"It was fine." She replied. The air around them was a bit awkward. Ryu refused to look at Kakashi and he didn't know what to say. She sighed and steeled herself. She refused to be like Hinata, just hiding and not telling the one that she liked straight up. "Kakashi?" She called out.

"Hm?" Kakashi turned his head and saw Ryu blushing and fidgeting. "Is something wrong?" He asked. She shook her head and glanced away.

"I-I j-just w-wanted to t-t-tell you that I l-l-l-lik-" She stuttered, her face becoming redder and redder. He chuckled at her antics and ruffled her hair.

"What is it? You don't have to be nervous around me, Ryu." He eye-smiled at her. She pouted at him. She reached up and hooked her fingers on the edge of his mask and pulled it down, going on her tippy-toes she softly brushed her lips against his.

He softly growled at her. "You call that a kiss?" He leaned down and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

"Mmph!" Ryu gasped and Kakashi took that opportunity to slip his tongue in and explore her mouth. He coaxed her to kiss him back and she complied, hesitantly touching her tongue with his.

"Dammit, I can't see Kakashi-sensei's face from this angle!" Sakura said with annoyance.

"Why are we all here?" Kiba asked.

"Because we're supporting Ryu and we might get to see Kakashi-sensei's face!" Ino replied.

"B-but we're intruding on something private." Choji protested.

"Plus, his back is facing us, and if we move they will probably hear us!"

"This is weird...I feel like this is a dirty way to find out Kakashi-sensei's face." Naruto commented.

"Don't you want to see how he looks like?!" Sakura argued.

"Yes, but…"

"No buts!" Hinata was blushing bright red from being near Naruto and from intruding on such a private moment.

"G-guys, w-we should g-go." She suggested.

"No! I must see Kakashi-sensei's face!" Sakura said determined. Kakashi and Ryu broke apart and he trailed kisses to her ear.

"You hear them?" He said in between kisses.

"Y-yes. They aren't really quiet." Ryu replied.

"Let's lose them?" He suggested.

"How?"

"You have a kunai on Yondaime's head on the Hokage Monument, yea?"

"Mhm."

"Let's go there." Ryu nodded and gathered her chakra. Sakura noticed the flare in Ryu's chakra and cursed. She ran out from the hiding spot towards the two. However, she was too late, with a flash of yellow they disappeared.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They were sitting there, looking out on Konoha. Ryu was sitting up against Kakashi's chest with his arms around her and his chin on her shoulder. Neither of them said anything, just enjoying each other's company.

Kakashi nuzzled Ryu's neck and hugged her tighter to him. "Don't be reckless like Naruto please. I know you're more than capable with handling yourself but I can't stand to lose you too." He whispered. She nodded and turned in his arms, facing him.

"You have to promise me the same thing, then." She said, frowning at him. He sighed and gently brushed his lips on hers.

"Me, reckless? You know I'm not like that." He replied. Ryu rolled her eyes.

"What I meant is that I do not want you jumping in front of me if it looks like I'm in danger!" She growled. Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"I can't do that."

"Well, then learn how! Kakashi, I learned the jutsu that made my father the flee-on-sight Yellow Flash of Konoha! I know I'm not as fast but I can dodge most things quite easily!" He shook his head.

"What if it catches you off guard?" He retorted.

"I was trained by Tsunade-baachan for a period of time, remember? Before she even taught me anything, she first made sure I knew how to read one's movements and predict and dodge accordingly." Ryu argued. She sighed and closed her eyes, "I was also taught by you."

"It's getting late." Kakashi said, changing the topic completely. Ryu opened her mouth to yell at him but he shook his head. "Get some sleep. Today was rather tiring. You'll need your rest." She pouted at him but he held his ground.

Ryu stood up and Kakashi followed, he bent down and gently placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Good night."


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Chapters One, Five and Ten! :)**

Ryu was walking down the streets of Konoha and she yawned. She didn't get much sleep seeing as her thoughts wouldn't settle down. She wondered what was the relationship between Kakashi and her. Were they lovers or…? She bit her lip and her ears picked up familiar voices. "You're not in a hospital this time. That's unusual...Kakashi-sensei."

"That's how you see me...I'm shocked." Came his reply. "Well, this time, I didn't have to use the Magekyou Sharingan. If you guys hadn't shown up at that time, I would have had to use it and then I'd be in that hospital bed as you were expecting." Kakashi chuckled. Ryu was about to head over to them when she noticed a shadow and quickly caught up to it.

"Yo, Hawk!" She said cheerfully, running along side him. He grunted at her, which made her push him, making him lose his balance and stumble.

"What was that for?!" Sasuke demanded. Ryu smiled at him with a shadow having fallen over her face and she was cracking her knuckles.

"That is not how you greet a senpai, is it? Greet me properly, teme!" She snarled. Sasuke sweat-dropped.

"When did you start calling me teme? Did the dobe tell you to do so?" He growled back.

"I started calling you teme now, since you didn't respect your senpai!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Sasuke protested.

"Shouldn't you have learned by now? The Uzumaki Twins never make sense! Now _run._ You've pissed off the Demon Fox and now you'll run because the Demon Fox loves to play prey and predator." Ryu replied.

"The hell?! No way!" Sasuke yelled. Ryu shrugged.

"Fine, I'll just beat you up then. At least if you did run, you had a chance of escaping."

"Bullshit! You're the fastest ninja in the village!" He pointed out. She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll give you a thirty second start. Now run!" Ryu said, shooing Sasuke. He cursed and did as she said, running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. She properly counted to thirty and went after him.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Kakashi's ears picked up the faint noise of maniacal laughter and sweat-dropped. He recognized the laugh. "Run Hawk, Run!" He heard.

"What is she doing?" Naruto asked Kakashi. Naruto had noticed the laughter of Ryu and looked up on the roofs.

"She's doing what she always does for the new recruits of ANBU. It actually has become a sort of competition between the ANBU. Who can outlast Ryu chasing them the longest."

"Who has the longest record?" Sakura asked curiously.

"I do. But that's only because the last time she chased me around was two days after I started teaching her and she hadn't tuned in to my patterns yet. I wouldn't know about now though."

"I wonder if I asked, would she do the same for me." Sai wondered. "I want to give it a go. What are the rules?"

"Anything goes. But no deadly jutsu. There's only a rule against her. She can't use Hiraishin." Kakashi replied. Naruto laughed.

"If she was allowed to use it, everyone would be captured in a couple seconds, right?" Kakashi nodded. Sasuke suddenly landed in front of the group, startling the four of them. He quickly ducked behind them and Ryu landed a couple seconds after.

"Coward!" She called out to him.

"You've been chasing me for two hours! At that constant high speed of yours! I couldn't even stop to find a place to hide because you were always right on me!" Sasuke protested.

"Oh? You lasted two hours, Sasuke? That's pretty good. This is actually really good stamina training." Kakashi said.

"Lies! With a constant murderous intent behind you and knowing that she can overtake you the moment she doesn't want to play around anymore is going to give me a heart attack! Why the heck is this a competition between ANBU anyways?!" Sasuke argued.

"Because I lasted twelve hours of her chasing me. It only stopped because she almost fainted from exhaustion." Kakashi replied, shrugging. "And also because Ryu challenged the other ANBU to beat my record. The closest anyone got was six hours and only because Yamato used wood structures to obstruct her view of him so he was able to hide and rest." Sasuke started cursing under his breath.

Kakashi turned to Ryu. "Well, let's declare this your win and his capture was accomplished in two hours?" She pouted but reluctantly nodded.

"And the demon fox is tamed by the demon wolf." Sakura whispered in Naruto's ear. He nodded in agreement. Ryu shot a glare at Sakura.

"And you! Why the heck were you trailing me and Kakashi? You were doing a really poor job of it too! We could hear you like you were right next to us!" Ryu frowned.

"Kakashi-sensei's face! You were gone but we tried to see his face! You should have seen the look of Teuchi and Ayame's face when they saw his face when he was eating ramen! Naruto, Sasuke and I would have seen if it was not for Ino-pig!" Sakura growled and started ranting on about what they did to try and find out Kakashi's face.

Ryu started giggling which eventually turned into peals of laughter where she was leaning on Kakashi so she wouldn't fall over. It was Sakura's turn to glare at Ryu. "What are you laughing at?!" She snarled. Ryu took a couple deep breaths and stood up straight, took a look at Sakura and erupted into laughter again.

"Did..you guys...really...treat him out to eat..then...pfft!" Ryu couldn't even finish her sentence. It was a couple minutes later when she finally calmed down. Naruto started telling Ryu the story as they walked along. Ryu face-palmed when they got to the end of the story. "Why were you wearing another mask under?" She asked Kakashi.

"We were working on the ranch. Didn't want to smell the stink." He replied, shrugging. Ryu nodded in understanding. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura grumbled in disappointment. "Are you really _that_ curious?" Kakashi asked, sighing. The three of them nodded. "Well, too bad."

Ryu laughed when they all sulked down with disappointment. "Well, if you _must_ know…" She said, instantly catching the attention of all three of them and they crowded in front of her with starry eyes. "He's incredibly handsome. Way more good-looking than Sasuke."

"But you love him, that opinion is biased." Sakura replied. Ryu shook her head.

"Even as Tsunade-baachan. She's seen his face, even if it was a glimpse of it." She shrugged. Sakura's eyes widened and she quickly dashed towards the Hokage Tower. Kakashi frowned and looked at Ryu.

"How did you know that Tsunade had caught a glimpse of my face before?" He asked. She grinned and waved her hand, dismissively.

"It was a couple weeks ago, she had dragged me to a bar because she wanted someone to be there to help her back when she got drunk and started spilling some things. She happened to mention that if she was a couple years younger, she would be trying to catch your affection because your face is 'incredibly pleasing to the eyes'." Ryu said, nonchalantly.

"Did she say anything else…?" Kakashi asked hesitantly. Ryu turned her head and grinned mischievously at him. He felt a jolt of fear go down his spine.

"Nothing worth mentioning." She replied. Kakashi stared at her in disbelief. She just smiled at him.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was sitting in the middle of a training field, holding her mask in her hand and staring at it. She heard footsteps and a soft thump on the ground next to her. She instantly leaned onto his shoulder. "I'm surprised you aren't wearing the standard jounin uniform." She murmured.

"Didn't feel like wearing it, plus it's a bit hot today." He replied. He was wearing the black ANBU sleeveless shirt with the pants. She looked up at him and blinked in surprise.

"You're not wearing your mask!" She exclaimed. Kakashi turned his face towards her and smiled.

"I don't need to when I'm with you." He pulled her closer to him, basically pulling her into his lap. "Plus I know for a fact that we're alone." He leaned down and nuzzled her neck, placing a soft kiss there. He hugged her closer and gripped her tightly. "I don't deserve this happiness." Kakashi sighed. "I don't deserve this. I just hope that Obito and Rin are together happily wherever they are." He murmured softly.

They stayed like that in silence, listening to the soft rustling of the leaves. Kakashi was playing with Ryu's hair and she was looking at her mask. He gently took the mask out of her hands and placed it on the grass next to them. Her gaze turned connected with his. "Kakashi...what are we?" Ryu asked, biting her lip and looking away.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Are we...lovers or…?" She blushed. Kakashi chuckled and pulled her close.

"We are whatever you want us to be." He answered. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, surprising him.

"I love you, Kakashi." She whispered in his ear. Kakashi smiled and hugged her tightly in return.

"I love you too, Ryu."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The next day, Ryu was walking around with a cheerful air around her. Sakura was walking with Ino when they both noticed Ryu. They instantly stopped in front of her, each one of them grabbing one arm and dragged her off.

"Woah! What are you guys doing?!" Ryu said, surprised.

"Girl talk! A deep, secret one with no interrupted and where you can not hide anything!" Ino replied. Ryu groaned and started struggling.

"Keep on struggling, and I'll break your arms and legs and won't heal them until we get to Ino's place." Sakura threatened. Ryu stopped and looked around for anything to help them. She saw no one so she started yelling to cause a commotion. It did eventually catch Kakashi's attention who had been running around doing some minor ANBU duties around the village.

"Oi! Help me, you damn ANBU!" Ryu yelled at Kakashi, who was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He stopped and looked at Ryu and saw Sakura's glare and silent threat to break all the bones in his body if he did help.

"Er…" Kakashi then noticed Ryu's glare on him too. A shiver of cold fear shot down his spine. Ryu couldn't escape using hiraishin because Ino and Sakura were already holding onto Ryu and if she used it, she would transport them too. The three glares on him froze him in place. Two were promising to break every bone in his body and make him heal naturally with no pain medication if he tried to help and the other was threatening to kill him as painfully as possibly while dragging it out if he didn't help.

Kakashi noticed Sasuke down the road from where the Sakura, Ino and Ryu were at and pointed at him. "Ah! Sasuke, yo!" He called out and poofed away. Ino and Sakura instantly turned their heads and dropped Ryu. They ran up to Sasuke and started bothering him and ended up bickering with each other. Ryu took her chance and escaped.

She was running towards Kakashi when she sensed killer intent and turned her head. Sakura was giving chase. Ryu cursed and headed towards the Hokage Tower. She noticed the Toad Chief and frowned, jumping into Tsunade's office with Sakura close behind her. Ryu then took notice of the great toad sage in the room. "What's happening, Tsunade-baachan?" Ryu asked Tsunade.

"Just wait. Kakashi went to get Naruto." Tsunade replied, giving nothing else out. Ryu could tell the old toad sage was watching her carefully. Sakura frowned, looking like she already knew what was going on. The door opened and in came Kakashi with Naruto behind him. The air instantly became somber with Naruto entering. "So this is Jiraiya-chan's apprentice?" The old toad sage said, breaking the silence that had fallen.

"Yes. This is Uzumaki Naruto. He's probably the 'Child of Prophecy' you talked about." Tsunade replied.

"A toad geezer? Seriously?" Naruto said, with a sceptic look on his face.

"Watch your language, Naruto!" Tsunade barked. "This is one of the two great sages of Myobokuzan, Fukasaku. He came all this way to talk to you."

"The correct term would be 'Two Great Toad Sages.'" Fukasaku said. "But more importantly, there seems ta be no doubt that yer Jiraiya-chan's student."

"Jiraiya-chan?" Naruto said, frowning. "Chan?! Don't talk about him like if he were a child! What the hell is with this toad geezer?!"

"I told you to watch your language!" Tsunade yelled at him. Shizune interrupted,

"He is the one that taught Jiraiya-sama sage techniques. He's Jiraiya-sama's master." Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. Fukasaku started laughing.

"Ero-sennin, eh? Sounds like a fitting nickname for Jiraiya-chan." He said. Naruto frowned.

"Anyways, what does this old sage want with me, dattebayo?" He asked. Fukasaku closed his eyes and sighed.

"Now..where to begin…?" He paused. "Well, I guess I'll just tell ya…" He paused again, then looked up at Naruto. "Jiraiya-chan has been killed in battle." Silence ensued after. Ryu's eyes widened. Though she hadn't been as close as Jiraiya as Naruto did, she still knew that he had been their godfather.

"Wha...What did you just say…?" Naruto said, refusing to believe what his ears just heard. Everyone looked at Naruto with sadness, waiting for him to react.

"I know it's sudden, and I don't blame ya if ya don't believe me…" Fukasaku sighed. "His throat was crushed in battle with Pain, Jiraiya-chan left me a message as he fell." He turned and took off his coat, showing a code on his back. "No doubt he did it so Pain wouldn't realize. This is all that's left of him."

"Did...you send him?" Naruto said.

"I did." Tsunade replied.

"Why did you let him go?!" Naruto demanded. "You know how he is! How could you send him into danger all alone?!" Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"The only one capable of Jiraiya's level of infiltration is Ryu! She would have been the only one that I could send with him! Would have your sister die along with him?!" She growled. Naruto's eyes widened with shock and he looked at Ryu.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed. He turned and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going, Naruto?" Sakura asked. He paused and replied,

"If Ero-sennin had been made the Fifth Hokage, he wouldn't have let Tsunade-baachan do something to reckless." And opened the door and left.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out.

"It's okay, Sakura. Just leave him alone for a while." Tsunade said.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

A couple days passed and Ryu was wandering the streets munching on some dango. She had been in a daze for the past few days. Even if she wasn't really close to Jiraiya, she felt like she should have made an effort to do so. She was again heading towards the Hokage Tower but she wasn't really doing it consciously.

Kakashi appeared in front of her and frowned, taking instant notice of her daze. "Hey." He called out. She blinked a couple times and looked up at him. He took the empty dango stick from her hand and threw it in a nearby trashbin. "Come on, there's something that applies to you that we're talking about in Tsunade-sama's office."

He took her hand and weaved his fingers with hers and gently pulled her along. She followed obediently. She stared at his back and gripped his hand tighter. Kakashi looked over his shoulder at her and eye-smiled, gripping her hand in return. Before he opened the door to Tsunade's office, he pulled her into a hug. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I love you."

Ryu walked in with Kakashi behind her and everyone in the room turned towards the two. "Ah, Ryu! You're finally here. We were discussing that Naruto go with Fukasaku to Myobokuzan to teach Naruto the sage arts. Fukasaku offered that privilege to you too." Tsunade said to her.

'**Refuse that offer. The foxes have already agreed to teach you **_**their**_ **sage techniques.** **As my host, you will not learn the techniques of a prey!' **Kurama snarled. Ryu smiled and shook her head. "No thank you, Fukasaku-sama. The foxes have already decided to teach me their sage techniques and it is an offer I cannot refuse." She replied.

Everyone's eyes widened and they stared at her. "The foxes?! How did you find them?!" Tsunade asked. Ryu shook her head.

"I didn't find them. They found me." She smiled. Ryu bit her thumb and quickly formed the seals then slammed her hand on the ground. "Summoning Technique!" Once the cloud cleared, a man stood with traditional clothing. He had black hair with black fox ears and a nice fluffy tail.

He turned and bowed to Tsunade then turned to Ryu. "I take it as you summoning me, the answer to our offer is yes?" She nodded. "Well, prepare the things you need and meet at the Konoha gates in an hour."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

An hour later, Ryu, Naruto, Tsunade, Shikamaru, Sakura, Fukasaku, Kakashi and Kuro stood at one of the Konoha gates, saying their goodbyes. Kakashi made sure he had his back faced to the others. He pulled down his mask and pulled Ryu into a passionate kiss, her fingers burrowing themselves into his hair. He broke the kiss and pulled his mask up quickly so Sakura, who had been sneaking around to get a look wouldn't see his face.

Ryu went over to hug Naruto. "Good luck, Naruto-niichan." She said with a smile. Naruto nodded.

"You too, Ryu."


	13. Chapter 13

When Ryu arrived, she was instantly greeted with a barrage of foxes jumping at her. They were all fairly happy to see her, since it had been near a thousand years since the last contractor of the Foxes had been summoned to where they lived. "Hey! Calm down! Don't mob down, Ryu!" Kuro yelled at the smaller foxes with irritation.

"B-but, Kuro-sama!" One of them protested.

"You'll have time to pamper her later, we need to get her to Aoi to train." Kuro replied, glaring. They nodded in understanding and disappeared into the tall grasses. "Let's go." He said, turning to Ryu. She nodded in agreement.

They walked for a bit, through the tall grasses that often had a fox scurry pass every so often and Kuro would glare at them and they would run away in fright. "You seem to be feared." Ryu noted. Kuro didn't reply to her comment and kept walking on, a bit faster though. They arrived at a pool of calm water. Sitting at the edge was a fox with blue hair. "Are you guys named by color or something?" Ryu asked.

Aoi chuckled. "It is easier. Our true names are in a language long lost, many hundreds of years ago. You're here to train with me, are you not? We must get started right away, the process of becoming a fox sage is a long and hard one. Kuro, you may go." Aoi dismissed Kuro. Kuro nodded and left with silent steps.

Aoi gestured for Ryu to sit next to him and she did. "First, you must learn to sit completely still. To feel the essence of Nature. The power that is hidden. After this step, I will teach you how to harness that power within you, Kurama-sama will help you in this step." Ryu nodded in understanding.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She tried to calm her thoughts but her mind kept wandering to how's Naruto training was going and if Kakashi was fine. A growl of irritation sounded within her mind. Kurama swept a tail and hit her mental-self in the head. '**Stop worrying and concentrate on your training! The faster you get this down, the quicker you can go back to Konoha!' **Kurama growled.

Ryu winced mentally and sighed. She steeled her thoughts and focused on the sounds around her. The birds singing their song, the wind rustling the grass, the sounds of a running stream. As she focused on everything and nothing, she realized that she felt an aura of energy-like-chakra surrounding every little thing. "Ah, so you felt it, at last." Aoi said, interrupting her thoughts. Ryu opened her eyes.

"At last?" She questioned, then looked up and her eyes widened in shock. The sun was setting. "W-what? How the heck is it already evening?"

"Time can pass quickly while focusing on the essence of Nature. Come on, you'll need food and a good night's rest to continue the training." Aoi replied, walking into the tall grasses without looking behind to see if Ryu was following.

-The Next Day-

"What we are going to try today is turn that energy you felt into chakra. Once you do, it's going to be called Nature Chakra and once you have just the right amount, you'll show the features of a fox. Thus you become a Fox Sage. However, too much and you'll completely turn into a fox and your mind with become like the animal." Aoi explained, frowning. Ryu had a look of worry on her face. Aoi smiled reassuringly.

There is a reason why there are so few fox sages. We do not have anything to expel the chakra out from you if you took in too much on the first try. That is why we usually train potential candidates for months on just feeling the energy around them, but you do not have that time. But what you do have is Kurama-sama. He can forcefully expel any foreign chakra from you. So once he feels like you're taking in too much, he can expel the chakra from you." Aoi said. Ryu frowned, thinking the process of expelling probably wasn't a pleasant one.

"Now try and take that energy within you. Grab and pull it in." Aoi encouraged. Ryu closed her eyes and went into the state of calmness and felt the energy again. It took her a couple tries to pull the chakra in but she instantly pulled in too much. Kurama growled and pushed the chakra out and it surprised Ryu. She coughed and fell forward onto her knees and hands.

'**That is what will happen each and every time. The more so if you gather in too much more. I only have seconds to expel it. You might even start vomiting.' **Kurama said to her. Ryu shuddered and coughed again. She hoped she didn't get to the point where she started vomiting. She had really liked her breakfast.

"Again." Aoi said, interrupting her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and sat down and calmed her thoughts, trying again and again Kurama expelled the nature chakra out. This happened again for the next two days. She got better and better each time though. On the third day, she got it perfectly.

She had fox ears on her head and a single tail. Her eyes were slits, like how she was when she was angry but they were still her blue eyes. Her canines were also longer but it wasn't a noticeable amount. Aoi smiled at her. "Congratulations, Ryu-sama. You are now a fox sage. My teaching ends here and I will pass you to Kuro. He will teach you the way to fight with your sage chakra." He bowed and Ryu returned it. "Oh, and as you get used to the sage chakra, you can eventually take more and more in. Storing it within the tails. You can go up to a maximum of nine tails. It is the ultimate form of a fox sage. Kurama-sama will teach you how to do so when he deems you ready." Aoi added. She nodded in understanding.

"Thank you for your teachings." She said. He shook his head.

"Thank you for being a great student." He replied. Kuro appeared from the tall grasses and gestured Ryu to follow him. She did, silently. She was distracted by the new noises she heard with the fox ears. Her ears were swerving around in every direction. She heard the murmurs of the smaller foxes and them giggling.

Kuro stopped at an open field and said nothing, only turning and dropping to a fighting stance then gesturing her to attack him. Ryu raised an eyebrow and started forming hand signs but he shook his head. "Taijutsu only." He called out. She rushed at him and swung a fist and he easily dodged. He shook his head and tsked. "You control nature energy now. Use it." He snarled. He swung at her and she dodged. However, she felt a hard hit to her side even though she had obviously dodged and went flying. She flipped and stopped herself from hitting the ground on her side.

"What the hell was that?!" She exclaimed.

"Energy. You can use it as an extension of yourself." He replied. "Try again." She ran at him again but before he could land a hit, she used her superior speed and went behind him and aimed a sharp jab at his head but he grabbed her hand and pulled her over his head and slammed her into the ground, creating a dent in the ground. "Speed and strength is also greatly intensified."

Ryu narrowed her eyes and glared at Kuro. He just stared back. With a thought, she flashed to the other side of the clearing. "Huh?!" She said in surprise. "I need a seal to use Hiraishin and I didn't place a seal here!"

Kuro smirked. "I told you. You are a sage now."

"That doesn't explain anything!" She growled. He shrugged in reply. She tried it again and flashed in front of him and roundhouse kicked him and was able to land a solid hit, but she had tried out enforcing it with the sage chakra. Kuro went flying a couple feet.

"Good! That is exactly what you should do!" Kuro rushed at her and before she could dodge, her sage chakra ran out and she took the hit full force. Ryu crashed into the ground heavily and rolled quite a bit. She sat up and a moan of pain escaped her mouth. "While in Sage Mode, you can take hits more easier. What you felt was the difference." Kuro replied. "Rest up and come back here to train tomorrow." He said then left.

The next few days, she got even better with the nature chakra and was now easily forcing Kuro to be constantly defending against her. However, he would still occasionally get hits in. Kurama had been teaching her how to store more nature energy into tails. It required her to be in sage mode and she had to direct the chakra into the tails and a second one would appear beside the first.

It was after a particularly hard hit from Kuro on Ryu before she could retaliate, tears suddenly started falling down her cheeks. His eyes widened in surprise. "Did I hit you too hard?!" He panicked and she shook her head.

"No...you've hit me harder before..." She sniffed, rubbing her eyes, trying to stop the tears. However, they wouldn't stop. She knelt down and started sobbing. For some odd reason, she had a heavy sadness in her chest. It was like something disappeared. The wind picked up and it ruffled her hair. The wind effected only her and she felt a warm caress against her cheek and heard Kakashi's voice in the wind.

"_I love you."_ Her tears stopped for a second before continuing. Kurama knew the reason why she was crying. Without even knowing, Kakashi and Ryu had created a bond between them. Even it wasn't a strong and true one, it was nevertheless a bond. Her body realized the lost of its mate and was grieving for its mate. Kuro walked over to Ryu and reached out to comfort her but an involuntary growl erupted from her throat. He blinked in surprise and understood what was happening. Her body was grieving for its lost mate. It was crying for the warmth that only her mate could give her.

It was an hour later when she stopped crying. "Is my training done?" She asked. Kuro nodded.

"There is nothing else to teach you." He replied.

"Then I'm going back to Konoha." She said, wiping her tears away. She shook off her tiredness she felt from the training she had done with Kuro.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Choji flinched from the appearance of smoke besides him. He looked up to see who it was and relief hit him. Katsuyu had already informed him of Naruto down in the crater that had been created by Pain, who Naruto was fighting right at that moment. With Ryu here, Choji felt like that they could actually win against Pain. "Ry-" He was about to say when he noticed the expression on her face.

It was disbelief and shock. He followed her gaze and sorrow filled his being again. Ryu walked the couple steps to where Kakashi was laying and fell to her knees besides him. She reached over and gently brushed her hand in his hair. She disbelieved what her eyes were telling her. However, her ears told her what her eyes were seeing was true. Kakashi was dead. There was no heartbeat.

"Open your eyes, Kakashi-baka." Ryu said softly. Choji flinched at the sorrow he could hear in her voice. "Come on, open your eyes and welcome me back." She said, insisting.

"There is nothing we can do." Katsuyu said, sorrowfully. "Naruto-kun has been captured by Pain." She said out of no where. Ryu narrowed her eyes and she entered sage mode instantly since she had been sitting still. She walked over to the edge where she could see Naruto pinned down by multiple black chakra receivers. She narrowed her eyes and she disappeared from her spot, a flash of yellow the only thing that was seen.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw Ryu appear in the air behind where Pain was and kicked as hard as she could and caught Pain off guard, sending him flying. There was a blankness to Ryu's eyes and Naruto knew that she found out that Kakashi was dead. He also noted the fox ears and tail and the speed and strength she had showed and deducted that she had become a Fox Sage. Two more tails joined the one she had. '**Don't gather it too fast, Ryu. It is incredibly dangerous to gather nature energy while moving.' **Kurama warned.

Pain got up and shook his head. "So it is the other one. You saved me the trouble of searching for you too." He said, cracking his neck. Ryu shrugged and started destroying the receivers pinning Naruto to the ground. Pain rushed at her and Ryu dodged each one, flipping here and there, all the while destroying the receivers.

Pain used his Shinra Tensei on Ryu and she merely flashed behind him and landed a kick. Naruto stood up and nodded to Ryu. "You know where he is?" Ryu asked.

"Yes. I followed where the chakra was coming from when I was in Sage Mode." Naruto replied.

"Then go. I'll distract this one." She said, shooing Naruto off. Pain frowned at the two and was about to run after Naruto when Ryu smiled maliciously at Pain, making him pause. Like a switch being released, Pain was hit with a blood red tail and sent flying hundreds of yards. Where Ryu had been standing, the Kyuubi's chakra had formed around her and sprouted seven tails.

The two fought, completely destroying the environment around them when Pain used his ultimate technique, Chibaku Tensei. The gravity pulled her and the earth towards the black ball. Ryu released all nine tails and the bijuu form started building, with the muscles appearing first as she started breaking free. She roared and formed a Tailed Beast Bomb when Pain suddenly released the technique.

Ryu fell from the ball and returned back to normal, jumping from rock to rock as it fell. Hopefully, Naruto had gotten to the person who was actually controlling the bodies of Pain. White lights suddenly appeared in the sky and headed towards Konoha. She thought nothing of it though, when she landed safely and no rocks falling from the sky, she just merely fell to her knees and stared into space. She silently wondered if she was ever going to recover.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Kakashi's eye opened in shock and he sat up. Choji called over his father. "You too, Kakashi huh?" Choza commented.

"Thank...Thank goodness, Kakashi-sensei!" Choji cried out, with tears falling down his cheeks in relief. Kakashi blinked, disorientated.

"I'll explain everything." Katsuyu said. As she explained what Naruto had done, Kakashi started understanding and stood up.

"Woah! Kakashi, you just died, slow down a bit." Choza said, putting a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. He shook his head.

"I have to find Ryu." Kakashi replied. Choza nodded in understanding and let his hand fall back to his side. Kakashi poofed in a cloud of smoke.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

He found her, surrounded by rocks, sitting on her knees, just staring into space. He walked the last couple steps and gently picked up some strands of her hair and she turned. Kakashi flinched at the blankness of her eyes before her eyes widened. "Ka...kashi…" She mouthed. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she reached up, touching his face to make sure he was really there.

Kakashi's eyes softened and he saw the light return to Ryu's eyes. Her fingers hooked to the edge of his mask and pulled it down and he closed the remaining distance between them, covering her lips with his. The kiss was sweet and loving, apologetic for the pain he had caused her even it had only been a little while.

They parted and Kakashi gently laid his forehead against hers. "Sorry." He whispered. Ryu wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I love you."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Naruto gripped the tree to keep himself from falling. He was deadbeat. He took another step and started falling when he landed on something that felt like a back. He looked up and saw that it was Kakashi. "Good job." Kakashi said to Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said, weakly.

"Hang on." He replied. Ryu snorted.

"Notice only him and not your sister, Naruto?" She said, shaking her head. Naruto turned his head and looked at her. She was smiling at him.

"Sorry." Naruto said, with an apologetic expression. They walked with Naruto on Kakashi's back in a comfortable silence. As they got closer to Konoha, cheering got louder and louder. When they broke away from the tree line, the cheers erupted.

"Welcome back!"

"We believed in you!"

"You're a hero, Naruto!"

"Thank you!"

"Welcome home!"

Naruto stood there in shock. Ryu grinned and gave Naruto a soft push towards the people running towards him. They started throwing him up in the air. Ryu stood at the edge of the crowd, happy for Naruto.

Kakashi came up and stood next to her and they watched as Naruto was thrown up in the air. She weaved her fingers with his and gripped his tightly.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

_Two Weeks Later_

The village was slowly getting rebuilt and the progress was coming along nicely. Many smaller villages that were close to Konoha came and helped with the rebuilding. It was during that time that Team 7 noticed that they hadn't seen Sasuke at all.

Sakura, Naruto and Ryu wondered if he was on an ANBU mission but when asking a member they shook their head and replied that they haven't seen him even before the Pain attack. They didn't dwell on it any further with how busy the rebuilding was. So they pushed it to the back of their minds.

The three of them were sitting and taking a break, talking about how Tsunade was in a coma. "There's so much I want to tell, Tsunade-baachan." Naruto sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll wake up soon! She's the Hokage after all...she's a strong woman! She'll be fine!" Sakura said, insisting.

"Long time no see, Naruto, Sakura and Ryu!" They heard someone call out to them. The three of them turned their heads. "I never thought I'd see you heroes again!"

"...Inari, Tazuna!?" Naruto said, surprised. "Wow! You've grown up, Inari and you look even older, gramps." He said, laughing.

"Give me a break…" Tazuna replied.

"I'm a carpenter now. We're here to help rebuild Konoha, and I thought to say hi to you three while we're here. You look pretty Sakura." Inari added. Sakura blushed and brushed her hair to the side.

"Oh really?" She said, with a smile. Ryu rolled her eyes and nudged Sakura playfully which made Sakura glare at her. Kakashi came up to them.

"Huh? Oh, you're here already?" He said, walking up to them.

"Hey, Kakashi! We came as soon as we heard Konoha was in trouble!" Tazuna replied. Kakashi stopped besides Ryu and he ruffled her hair, teasingly. Tazuna frowned at the four of them. "Where's Sasuke? I wanted to talk to him too."

Silene was the reply to his question. "We don't know. No one has seen him for at least three weeks." Ryu replied, breaking the silence.

"Oh. Well we have to get back to work, hope to talk to you guys later!" Inari said, with Tazuna nodded. They walked off and Naruto waved bye. A comfortable silence settled between them, Sakura opened her mouth to say something to Ryu but Kiba interrupted her before she could say anything.

"There you are!" He said.

"Kiba! What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Listen...Tsunade's been dismissed as Hokage!" Ryu frowned as did Kakashi and Naruto and Sakura were shocked.

"What?"

"The sixth Hokage is some guy named Danzo! I don't know him, but apparently, he's pretty shady!" Kiba said. Ryu's expression darkened and Kakashi cursed under his breath.

"This isn't going to go down well…" Kakashi muttered.

"That's not it! The new Hokage has declared Sasuke a missing-nin and has ordered him to be disposed as one!" Kiba said, dropping the bomb.

"What did he do?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I don't know!" Kiba replied.

"They're not waiting for Tsunade to recover..that's not surprising.." Kakashi said.

"I..I'm going to see Danzo!" Sakura said, gritting her teeth in anger. Ryu grabbed her arm before she could go.

"Don't. Especially you, Naruto." She said, her voice emotionless and cold, which stopped Naruto from arguing. "It won't solve anything and you'll just be playing right into his hands. You have to remember Naruto, we have the Kyuubi sealed within us. Danzo wants to keep us within the village and then we won't be able to find out what's happening with Sasuke."

Naruto gritted his teeth and glared at Ryu but he saw the point in what she was saying. "Let's go find Sai!" He said instead. Sakura agreed and they ran off. Ryu sighed and Kakashi set a hand on her shoulder.

"You weren't particularly close to Sasuke but Naruto seems him as a brother." He said. Ryu shrugged.

"I know that. I'll just have to be the rational twin that makes the unpredictable one think about doing something before doing it sometimes." She said, rolling her eyes and taking a step to follow Naruto and Sakura. Kakashi grabbed her hand and turned her around, facing him. His eyes were serious.

"Be careful, Ryu. Even if you are ANBU and have the support of those in ANBU, Danzo is the Hokage at the moment. Try and avoid him at all costs. He cannot touch Naruto right now because the village sees him as a hero, but you…" Kakashi trailed off, his eyes becoming cold and angry. The air around them dropping a couple degrees.

"And...there goes the Wolf demon." Ryu said, with a teasing grin, lightening the mood. Kakashi shook his head and eye-smiled at her. He bent down and brushed his clothed lips on her forehead. Ryu pouted and glared at him, making him chuckle.

"You go find Sakura and Naruto, I have things to do." He said, shooing her off. She grumbled and stalked off in the direction the two had gone. After a couple minutes, she heard them talking to Sai when she noticed two Kumogakure ninjas stop and listen to their conversation. When Sakura mentioned Sasuke's name, the two Kumogakure ninjas' tensed up and the female unsheathed her blade and pointed it at Sakura.

"Tell me everything you know about Sasuke! Since he seems to be a friend of yours!" She demanded. Naruto reached over and was about to take Sai's sword when Ryu called out, while walking to them.

"Is that the way to ask for information on something? You're not in your village." She said, putting a finger on the sword and pushing it away and turning her head, glaring at them.

"Uchiha Sasuke attacked our village! He took our master! We don't even know if our master is dead or alive!" The female said, angrily.

"That is a lie! Sasuke would never do that!" Naruto growled. Ryu shot a glare at Naruto.

"Shut up, Naruto. This could be possible after all he disappeared for more than three weeks now." She pointed out.

"Don't tell me you believe them, sis?!" Naruto snarled in disbelief.

"I don't blindly trust people. Anything can happen. What if he found something that made him do that? There's a lot of ANBU that become missing-nin because of the information they find out, Naruto." She replied, coldly. She turned her gaze on the two Kumogakure ninjas. "We don't know any information on him. He went missing three weeks ago. That is normal for ANBU to go for three weeks on a mission but not without reporting at least, weekly."

"So what! We have permission from the Hokage to kill him now! We will have our revenge! We'll destroy Uchiha!" The male one said.

"Since there is an order been sent out to kill Sasuke, the village will provide you with any information that you need. You don't need to pressure these two for it." Sai pointed out.

"Yea, they will! Our team leader is currently being briefed about it right now. We just thought we'd see if we could find out any more info!"

"We can't just sit around! When we don't know what happened to our master!" Ryu narrowed her eyes.

"Threatening someone with a sword to give them information? That's the most stupidest way to ask for information I have ever seen." Ryu said. The female glared at her, opening her mouth to retort, but Ryu continued. "Maybe if you asked for information nicely, I would have been content to give it to you but now? No thanks, find someone else."

Ryu left and arrived at the tents where the Konoha shinobi were staying. She weaved through them and arrived at the one that she was given. She placed a barrier seal and a silence one so she could rest without being disturbed before going to sleep, intending to keep everyone out-even Kakashi.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Chapters One, Five and Ten (and soon to be Fifteen) **

The cold air in the tent was frightening. Naruto was being treated by Ryu with Sai, Kakashi and Yamato standing at the opening. Ryu had a cold look in her eyes and each disapproving glance from her toward him, made him freeze in fright. Ryu was also ruthlessly cleaning the wounds before bandaging them. She had refused to heal him because she had said "For being an idiot, he deserves to heal on his own!"

Kakashi had tried to convince Ryu to reconsider but she had turned her glare onto him, which made him stop talking mid-sentence. Yamato didn't even try, since if Kakashi couldn't then no one would be able to convince Ryu to heal her brother. "Maybe I should talk to the Kyuubi and tell him to let you heal _normally_." She muttered under her breath.

"You should rest for a while…" Kakashi said to Naruto. Naruto shook his head.

"I have to see the Raikage! I need to convince him to forgive Sasuke!"

"They'll be holding the conference soon! Every village has placed restrictions on missions and leaving the village!" Yamato said. "Plus you don't have the seal anymore! As the host, you shouldn't be allowed to leave the village! Besides in the last battle, you got all the way to eight tails! You're lucky the seal worked and held back the fox, but what about next time?" Naruto opened his mouth to reply but Ryu interjected.

"It wasn't the seal that stopped Kyuubi from coming out. It was our father. Or better known as the Yondaime Hokage. I'm guessing that he told you the same thing he told me, Naruto. The Masked Man is behind everything, the attack sixteen years ago and he was probably using Pain too." She said, with a frown.

"It's just as Jiraiya feared. That's who was behind the attack sixteen years ago. He had the Sharingan and the only Uchiha missing-nin who hated Konoha and had the power to control the Kyuubi was Madara." Kakashi said, with a serious tone.

"Whose Madara?" Naruto asked.

"The former leader of the Uchiha Clan, who is said to have been defeated by the First Hokage. We have to tell the Elders. Sai!" Kakashi said.

"Yes…?" Sai replied.

"You tell the Hokage." Kakashi ordered and Sai nodded hesitantly. "Naruto! What did Yondaime tell you?"

"Huh?"

"Fathers usually have things to say to their sons." Kakashi replied. Naruto blinked in surprised before grinning.

"He said he had faith in me!" Naruto replied. Ryu smiled back and shook her head in relief. When she had found out who their father actually was, he was surprised that she was taking control over the seal at such a young age. So he had been able to sit down and talk to her for a bit, with his chakra not being used to close the seal again. When it was time for him to leave, he had told her that he was proud of her and expected great things from her and her brother.

"Great!" Kakashi raised his thumb up. "You go after the Raikage! Well, Yamato, Ryu and I will go with you!"

"What!?" Yamato exclaimed. Ryu sighed.

"Oh well, I'll support you, Naruto." Naruto smiled at her and she smiled back.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Naruto and Konohamaru were facing each other. "Sexy Jutsu!" Konohamaru said. The two Root members were watching the two, confused. Kakashi popped up in the bushes in front of them and used Sharingan on the two and they dropped to the floor, unconscious. Ryu was right beside Kakashi and pouted.

"Why couldn't I have just killed them?" She asked. Kakashi glanced at her with a blank stare.

"Could you kill both without one getting away?" He replied. She nodded.

"Of course. It's not hard. I just gotta punch one and kick the other, both in the head." Kakashi sweat-dropped.

"Why are you so blood-thirsty?"

"I'm a demon. It's expected of me to be blood-thirsty. Plus, I'm annoyed. Those two Kumogakure ninjas got away before I could beat them to an inch of their lives for punching Naruto when he wouldn't even fight back!" She snarled. Kakashi reached up and ruffled her hair.

"Calm down. Don't let your anger control you. Then your attacks will get sloppy and predictable." He said, sternly. Ryu looked away in shame, her anger cooling off instantly, like he threw an ice cold bucket over her head. "Now let's go meet up with Yamato, why don't we?" Ryu nodded and they went off.

When the two of them arrived, Naruto was already standing besides Yamato. They nodded to each other silently and went off, Yamato leading the way since he would be the one tracking the Kumogakure ninjas. After an hour or so, they arrived in the Land of Iron and Naruto sneezed from the cold. Yamato shushed him.

The Kumogakure ninjas met with the Raikage and his two ninjas. One of them told the ones there were following that they were being followed. "Come out, Konoha dogs!" Kakashi silently told Ryu to stay behind and he received a glare in reply but he knew that she wouldn't disobey his orders. Naruto, Yamato and Kakashi jumped out.

Ryu silently snarled with Kurama snarling with her. She couldn't make out what they were saying but when Naruto fell to his knees and bowed with his head down, she wanted to leap out and convince the Raikage by force. She was barely containing her rage. Kakashi tried very hard to keep his eye blank. However, he could feel the malicious intent coming from Ryu, quite easily and he wondered if the others could feel it too or it was simply because he was tuned to her.

Kakashi saw the Kumogakure ninjas glance at the trees behind Kakashi, Yamato and Naruto and he knew that they felt it too. It grew when the Raikage turned to leave. His group of ninjas had their hands near their weapons, ready in a moment's notice to attack. After they left, Kakashi gave the signal for Ryu to come out of her hiding place and she did, landing in front of Naruto, who was still bowing his head.

"Naruto…" She said softly, the anger deflating into sadness. "That's enough, Naruto. Let's go." She said, kneeling down and gently coaxing him to stand and lean on her. Kakashi stayed behind, knowing that only Ryu could comfort Naruto.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They were at an inn, with Naruto laying on the floor, lost in thought. Naruto had his own room because they felt like he needed some time alone. Ryu was sitting outside the door, nibbling some rice balls. They were just made and still a bit warm. Kakashi was staring at Ryu and chuckling at how she was eating the rice balls.

He walked up to her, and reached down to swipe some rice that was sticking on the side of her cheek. He pulled down his mask and licked the grain of rice away, before leaning down and took a giant bite out of her rice ball. She pouted at him and quickly stuffed the rest of her rice ball into her mouth. He grinned at her and stole a quick kiss before pulling his mask up again and returning to his spot, leaning against the wall.

The two of them heard an explosion coming from Naruto's room and they acted quickly. Ryu flashed to Naruto's side and had a kunai out, ready to defend against any attack and retaliate. Wood came and wrapped around Madara and also made a blockade in front of Naruto and Ryu. "Naruto, stay still." Yamato said sternly. Kakashi appeared behind Madara and had a Chidori already prepared to strike Madara.

"Nice move, Hatake Kakashi...you're fast." Madara commented. Kakashi glared.

"I won't let you get your hands on Ryu or Naruto that easily!" He replied.

"You must have heard me, then, right? None of your attacks will work on me, Uchiha Madara!"

"So you admit you are Uchiha Madara." Kakashi said with his eyes showed wariness. He didn't reply, but rather just stayed silent.

"I just want to talk for now...don't be so tense." He said finally. "Naruto...how did you make Nagato betray me? I'm curious about you."

"That doesn't matter!" Naruto snarled. "What did you do to Sasuke?!"

"Sasuke...eh? Alright, I'll tell you about a man eaten up by the ninja world's hatred and bitterness, about Uchiha Sasuke!" Madara replied.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Madara had left and the Inn owner was yelling at Kakashi and Yamato. Naruto was sitting alone on top of the inn. Ryu was standing besides Kakashi, spaced out and worried for Naruto. All she could do was support him. She didn't know how he felt because she wasn't very close to Sasuke.

Ryu could feel Naruto start to gather Nature Chakra and was confused on why he was doing so. Yamato jumped onto the roof of the inn that he had just fixed and called to Naruto, "Naruto! Come back inside already." Naruto opened his eyes and instead of standing up, he looked down to where he had sensed Sakura, Lee, Sai and Kiba.

"There you are. Finally!" Kiba said, relieved.

"Why are you all here?" Kakashi asked. Sakura frowned and looked at Naruto.

"Naruto...there's something we have to talk about…" She said solemnly. Naruto jumped down and landed in front of her. "Naruto...I love you." She said, blushing and looking away. Ryu could hear the falseness in her voice and narrowed her eyes in response. Sakura started explaining how she didn't like Sasuke anymore and how Naruto could stop chasing after him for her.

Naruto frowned. "Stop it, Sakura. This isn't funny." Sakura stared at him.

"What are you so upset about? I've just fallen for you instead of Sasuke...they say a woman's heart is like the autumn sky, right?" She replied.

"I...hate people who lie to themselves!" Naruto said furiously. Sakura and Naruto started arguing and Ryu tuned them out. She glanced at Kakashi and met his gaze. They both slightly nodded, detecting something else was with Sakura and not that she simply wanted to stop Naruto from going after Sasuke.

Sakura gave up and left with Sai, Lee and Kiba. Kakashi tilted his head slightly towards them and Ryu got the message. She disappeared without a trace.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was following behind Sakura, Lee, Sai and Kiba, though at a distance where they wouldn't be able to tell she was. She had also completely erased her chakra so that they wouldn't be able to detect it and only a powerful sensor-type would be able to tell she was there. She also made sure to stay down-wind at all times with Kiba and Akamaru's noses.

After a while of running, Ryu caught Sasuke' scent at the same time Kiba did. The group stopped and Ryu watched them carefully. She wasn't close enough to hear them. They were arguing and Sai suddenly stopped all of them from going. Lee and Kiba started attacking Sai when Sakura threw three sleeping gas bombs at them and they fell asleep. Sakura went towards Sasuke and Ryu followed.

After another couple minutes, they arrived at the area where Sasuke was. Sakura landed in front of him and Ryu was too far away to make any words. But she saw Sasuke point at Karin. Sakura approached the girl, holding out a kunai. Ryu saw Sasuke raise his hand, charged with Chidori and acted.

Ryu flashed to Sasuke and Sakura by the hiraishin kunai in Sakura's weapon bag. She grabbed Sasuke's arm and pushed it in the other direction, making him miss Sakura. Sasuke raised his leg to kick Ryu but she easily dodged it and twisted in the air to kick him herself, making him fly away a couple feet. "Heh! One after another." Sasuke sneered.

"Hmm..yea, but this one has no problem killing you." Ryu sneered back. "Unlike Sakura...or Naruto, even Kakashi, I've always disliked you. So, instead of Sakura and Kakashi shouldering a burden of killing someone they care about, I'll do it instead and have no problems about it. You'd just be another number to the total." Sasuke started laughing.

"You say that like you actually could! I've been dying to kill you...Ryu." Sasuke replied. Kakashi arrived and landed beside Sakura and Ryu. Kakashi glanced at Karin who was unconscious.

"Sakura...heal her until she's able to talk. There's still time. She knows a lot about the enemy." He ordered her.

"What about you two?" She asked.

"Sakura..take her with you...and get out of here." He turned his head and eye-smiled at her. "Don't worry about Ryu and I." He turned back to Sasuke. "Ryu, I'll take care of him." Ryu grinned and tightened her fists.

"Hell no. I said it to him, I'll say it to you. I have absolutely no problem with killing him. To me, he'll just be another number to the total. I will not let you bare the burden of killing him. If Naruto ends up hating me, so be it. However, don't let him interfere with my fight." She replied, her eyes cold. Sasuke ran at them and Ryu rushed to meet him, the clang of his sword and her kunai rang through the area, they parted and both jumped down to the water.

Sasuke activated Susanoo and it's arrow came flying towards her. Ryu flashed to behind Sasuke and aimed a chakra infused fist at his head, cracking the Susanoo armor. He turned to hit her with the Susanoo arm but she had already jumped away to safety. "Even absolute defense will crack to brute force…" Ryu observed. "What about brute force with powerful offense?" She wondered to herself.

Ryu felt darkness coming from Sasuke in a strong amount, his Susanoo changing once again. Even she could feel the danger from it and tensed, however it shrank and disappeared, Sasuke grabbed his eyes in pain. Ryu saw Sakura running towards Sasuke to kill him but she hesitated just before she could stab him and Sasuke noticed, turning and grabbing her throat. He took the kunai from her hand and raised it to kill her. Ryu cursed and was about to activate hiraishin when Naruto saved her.

Ryu appeared beside Kakashi, who was blocking Naruto. Naruto made a kage bunshin, prepared to fight Sasuke. Ryu turned her her head and stared at him, silently telling him that this was her duty. Naruto glared at her. "You're open! I won't show any mercy!" Sasuke interrupted, chidori charged and running at them. Ryu turned around and quickly engulfed her hand with lightning chakra also.

Kakashi instantly recognized the higher density of lightning chakra compared to Sasuke's. She was using Raikiri instead of Chidori. He realized that she was serious about killing Sasuke herself. They crashed together and the two jutsu's made a bright light that blinded them all.

The light faded and there stood Ryu over an unconscious Sasuke who was heavily bleeding. "Ryu! You killed him?!" Naruto yelled. Ryu 'tched'.

"I refrained from killing him, just for you, Naruto. He's unconscious. We'll take him back to Konoha. I'll watch him to make sure he doesn't go on a rampage and if he does...I'll truly kill him this time." Ryu replied, bending down and grabbing Sasuke's arm and slinging him over her back. "Let's go back." Naruto nodded. Ryu raised her gaze and glared straight at White Zetsu, promising death if he dared interfered.

"Ryu, go ahead to Konoha with Sasuke. I'll follow behind with the Naruto and Sakura with the girl." Kakashi said. Ryu nodded in understanding and flashed away.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters of Naruto! (I seriously wish Kakashi was real though) I only own my character, Uzumaki Ryuuko and my plot on where it deviates and added scenes!**

Sasuke woke up in the darkness. He frowned and wondered if his eyes have completely gone blind, however when he turned his head, he noticed a pair of glowing blue eyes staring at him with blankness. He groaned and turned his head away, falling back into unconsciousness.

It was what felt like hours later when he came around once again. He was still in the dark but there was some light. Specifically, it was coming from the soft green glow of healing chakra. It was gentle and warm and set a painful ache in his chest. He wanted to see who it was healing him but the soft glow was not enough. All he knew that the hands were soft when searching his body for any more wounds.

What he could tell that they were female. "S-Sakura?" He rasped out, wincing from how dry his throat was. There was no response to his question but something gently touched his lips and he felt wetness. It was a cup filled with water. He opened his lips to drink it down greedily but after a couple gulps, the cup left his lips and he weakly snarled in response.

The hands continued their search and occasionally healing chakra would engulf the hands. After a couple minutes, he heard the rustling of clothes as whoever had been healing him stood up. The hands went to his face and grabbed his chin, forcing him gently to look up at where the direction of the face of the person must be. He heard a sigh and the hands once again have healing chakra covering them and he felt them trying to heal his eyes.

Sasuke chuckled softly. "It's no use. The only way to recover my vision is to implant Itachi's eyes." He told the person. The hands dropped down and he was once again alone in the darkness. He closed his eyes and willed himself to rest.

The next time he woke, it was to the smell of food. His stomach let out a loud rumble in response and he heard a soft, feminine laugh. Food was brought up to his lips and he opened his mouth and he chewed and swallowed. This repeated for a couple more minutes before a cup was brought up to his lips. He drank deeply. After a good couple gulps, he finally asked, " Where am I?"

Silence replied to his question. "I'm not going to get a response am I?" Sasuke sighed.

"Below Konoha." was the quiet response. So quiet that he would have missed it if the room wasn't dead quiet. He scoffed.

"Why the hell am I not being interrogated and tortured then?" He sneered.

"By the request of Naruto and the Hokage has yet to order it. There are bigger problems at the moment." the reply came. He laughed cruelly.

"Naruto...I hate him." Was his response.

"Well, he's the reason why you are not screaming in pain."

"Whatever physical pain that is inflicted onto me, cannot compare to the anguish and rage I feel." He replied. Silence returned and the darkness closed down again. This time a little bit over-bearing. He had oddly become used to her company even though she was only down here a couple times. He hadn't recognized her voice either so it couldn't be Sakura.

"Are you not curious of who I am?" She asked. He hesitated for a bit before replying,

"Yes..I am but if you don't want to say voluntarily, then I won't bother you for it."

"You are a slightly better person than I thought." She commented before he heard her footsteps which were getting farther away, which signified that she was leaving, but he memorized the sound of her footsteps so he would know it was her next time. He wondered why she was getting to him. Karin nor Sakura ever fazed him with their advances yet with this girl, he was now waiting for the next time she came by.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was sitting at Ichiraku Ramen besides Kakashi and Naruto, laughing hysterically with Kakashi sweat-dropping and Naruto just inhaling his ramen. She held her stomach and took deep breaths to try and stop laughing but a glance at Kakashi would make her start laughing once again. "Can't...believe...you….as..Hokage!" She gasped out.

"Is it really that hard to imagine me as Hokage?" Kakashi sighed. Ryu shook her head.

"N-no..but I just can't get my head wrapped around it." She replied, finally calming down. She started eating the ramen that was placed in front of her as soon as Teuchi noticed that she had calmed down enough to start eating. After a couple minutes of just slurping and soft clangs of chopsticks, Kakashi was called away to the war meeting and an ANBU came up to Ryu and with a nod of understanding, she finished her ramen in record time and paid.

The two of them head to the Intelligence Division Headquarters. "What's going on?" Ryu asked Ibiki who had been waiting for her.

"Your assignment is refusing to eat."

"Why not?"

"He refuses to be fed by anyone else." Ryu swore under her breath. She walked over to the tray of food and walked towards the door that held the stairs down. It got darker and darker the farther she went down the stairs. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the approaching darkness. Eventually, her eyes adjusted to the point where she could see in the dark just as well as the day. It was a perk of being Kurama's jinchuriki.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she walked towards Sasuke who was sitting up on the cot. She reached her hand to touch his, to not scare him and she saw his face relax slightly. "You're here." He said softly.

"Why aren't you eating?" Ryu asked, softly so he wouldn't recognize her voice. She wondered how he would react when he found out he was being taken care of by the person who said that they didn't mind killing him, that he would be simply just another number to the total.

"They shoved the tray at me and I couldn't see anything, so I didn't trust the food." He replied.

"What about me then?" She asked.

"I'm immune to most poisons because of Orochimaru, so I'm not worried about any poisons." Sasuke said, "I just didn't trust them to shove anything sharp into the food." Ryu hummed in response and began feeding him.

In honesty, she was taking care of him because of Naruto. She had been all for torturing Sasuke and giving him the normal routine that traitors had. However, before she could voice her opinion, Naruto had shoved his feelings about Sasuke onto her through their mental link and she had ended up volunteering on taking care of him and watching him.

When he finished eating, she stood up to go back up to the surface. "Wait!" Sasuke called out. Ryu turned her head and saw Sasuke standing up and slowly walk to her. His arms came around and hugged her with his face burying into her neck. "Thank you." And he let her go. Ryu stood there in shock. Who the hell was this person she was taking care of? Sasuke wasn't this person.

She walked up the stairs again and set the tray down. Ibiki gestured her over. "Do you need something, Commander?" She asked. He stared at her with a serious expression.

"Kakashi was looking for you and seemed a bit...restless. Be careful, he is someone worth being wary about, Ryu. Even if you trained under him, you don't know what he was like." Ibiki warned her then shooed her off. Ryu frowned and headed out of the temporary structure of the Intelligence Division Headquarters.

_'Why would Kakashi be looking for me?'_ She wondered to herself. She went to visit the Hospital to see if her help was needed but she was shooed away by Sakura, saying that it wasn't hectic and that Kakashi was looking for her. Ryu blinked in surprise and shook her head in confusion. The last time she heard that Kakashi was busy with the meeting about the war against Madara. They had nothing planned so...why?

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Kakashi popped his head into the places that Ryu could be. Each time, he got a shake of no, she was not here and they had no idea where she could be. He wanted to tell her the news that he had gotten earlier, when he had gotten out of the meeting. His apartment complex had been rebuilt and he could start living in it.

He had been ecstatic at not having to sleep in a tent anymore, though it hadn't been bad because he had gotten to share it with Ryu. He just hadn't been able to do the things he wanted to do with her. _Naughty things. _

So Kakashi was trying to find her to ask her to move in with him. He would convince her that Naruto could take care of himself and she would only have to do check-ups. The only thing to do was to find Ryu. He had tried to sniff her out but something was blocking her unique and familiar gentle scent of soft and relaxing lavender.

"Kakashi!" The voice of his almost-mate called to him. He turned to face her and saw the worried expression in her face. Her long blonde hair was not in its usual high ponytail but allowed to freely flow down her back. She was wearing the tight-fitting black ANBU shirt with the loose gray pants. She walked towards him quickly. "Is something wrong? I was told by many people that you were looking for me."

He shook his head. "Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to tell you-" He had been saying when the wind shifted and he got a full blast of her scent. It was mixed with Sasuke's scent! No wonder he hadn't been able to scent her! A growl rumbled in his throat before he could stop it. Kakashi saw Ryu's expression change from worry to surprise. He frowned and asked her in a low voice, "Why is Sasuke's scent all over you?" He near snarled.

She frowned and sniffed at her arm and clothes. "I don't smell anything...but he caught me off guard and hugged me." She explained. The thought of Sasuke hugging Ryu sent Kakashi to a near white-hot rage. He was able to reign himself in but he was still angry. He wanted to pull his mask down and give Ryu a punishing kiss for allowing Sasuke to get that close. However, he grabbed her hand instead and started walking towards his newly built apartment, pulling her along.

"H-hey! Kakashi?!" She said in surprise, stumbling a bit. "Where are you taking me?! Oi! Kakashi!" He ignored her. He had decided that he could no longer delay it. He had to truly mate her and claim her as his.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Sasuke followed the slight trace of his chakra he had implanted on the girl when he had hugged her. He was curious on who she was so he followed the trace in the dead of night. Even if his vision was failing, he could still see. When he arrived at the place where the trace stopped, rage filled his being.

'_Why did it have to her of all people?'_ He thought bitterly. She had told him that she had no problem of killing him and she had taken care of him so gently. He heard a soft whimper and she shifted a bit, her hair falling and revealing the Hatake mating mark on her neck. Sasuke felt white-hot rage burn through his body and he left.

'_Why did he feel rage at seeing the mark?' _Sasuke wondered, leaving Konoha far behind and heading towards the meeting point where he had promised to meet Madara if he was ever separated from them.

* * *

**This Chapter is cut short for those on Fanfiction because I don't want to change the rating to M. If you would like to read the lemon, please go to Quotev or Wattpad!**

**Also, sorry for the long wait! I wanted to focus on school (senior year of HS) and now that I'm out, I can focus on The Kyuubi Twins again!**

**Thank you for reading my fanfiction! Chapter 16 will be up relatively soon!**


	16. Chapter 16

_**Disclaimer: In Chapters 1, 5, 19, and 15!**_

_Kakashi woke up to the warmth of a body curved to his side and a soft weight on his chest. He looked down and smiled softly, kissing the top of Ryu's head softly. He could feel her presence strongly besides him. He could also feel her sleeping mind. He gently brushed her chakra with his and she stirred, moving closer. _

'_**Let her sleep, you demon wolf.'**_ A growl rumbled through his mind. Kakashi blinked in surprise. He had forgotten about the Kyuubi that resided in her. She barely ever used the Kyuubi's power. She was powerful on her own. '_**I do not like that your chakra now mixes with hers. It is cramped enough as it is! However, I will tolerate it for her happiness.' **_Kurama said.

Kakashi made a mental note to be cautious of the fox. He closed his eyes to go back to sleep but knocks on his door stopped him from doing so. He really didn't want to get up from the warmth of his bed or wake Ryu. The knocking was even louder than before and Kakashi growled lowly. He gently pulled away from Ryu and stood up and stretched, going to his drawers and pulling pants out and quickly putting them on before the person could knock again.

He passed by his discarded shirt and remembered that his face was bare. He looked around quickly for something to cover his face and saw his Icha Icha book and hesitated for a second before picking it up and opening to a random page and using the book to cover the lower half of his face.

It was an ANBU telling him to report to the Hokage as soon as possible, with Fox too, then he left. Kakashi sighed and shook his head in defeat, going to wake up Ryu.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Tsunade sat at her desk with her hands crossed in front of her and her chin resting on them as she thought how to convince Ryu to go with Naruto into hiding.

-Flashback-

_The kages were sitting around the circle desk, discussing about the war plans when the Tsuchikage asked where they would be hiding the Kyuubi and Hachibi. "Hide?!" Tsunade frowned._

"_What?!" The Raikage exclaimed. _

"_We need their strength! What are you talking about?!" Tsunade yelled. _

"_I thought so too, but they are the enemy's objective. We can't let them fall into the wrong hands...this is what we decided at the previous meeting." The Tsuchikage replied, calmly. _

"_But we are talking about Uchiha Madara! Without them, we won't stand a chance! We need all the strength we can get!" Tsunade argued. _

"_This is a war to protect them. It's not your decision to make. We took a vote." Gaara interrupted. _

"_You're just a kid! Naruto is-" Gaara cut her off._

"_I know him well...Naruto takes too many risks when it comes to his friends...that's why." Gaara explained. Tsunade glared at Gaara. _

"_Then what about the other half of the Kyuubi, Uzumaki Ryuuko?" Tsunade snarled. "The twin that is an ANBU who specializes in Assassination, Tracking and Infiltration?" Gaara became quiet. _

"_Convince Kakashi that hiding her is the best for her, to keep her safe. I'm sure that he'll convince her for you after you do that." _

-Flashback Ends-

Tsunade stared at her two ANBU in front of her. "You two can take your masks off. This won't require you to be ANBU." She said. The two nodded and took off their masks, revealing their faces to her. Tsunade saw a spark in Ryu's eyes and felt the combined chakra of the two. She then noticed the mark on Ryu's neck and it confirmed her suspicions. She sighed.

It was going to make convincing Kakashi a lot harder. He would feel Ryu's distress and his instinct would protect her from that and try to get rid of it, while he knew that doing the opposite of getting rid of the distress would keep her safe and alive. "What do you need the two of us for, Tsunade-baachan?" Ryu asked, curious.

"I'm going to be blunt with you, Ryu. I know you are going to protest this but this is an order as your hokage. You are going to go with Naruto to an island near Kumogakure where A and B trained at." Tsunade replied. Ryu frowned, confused.

"Okay, but am I not needed here?" She asked, confusion lacing her voice. Even Kakashi frowned.

"We need every jounin-level ninja we can get, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said, joining in. Tsunade sighed.

"You are not going as an ANBU or even a guard. You are going as the container of the Yin Half of the Kyuubi." Tsunade replied, distaste showing on her face that she had to send both Naruto and Ryu away in hiding.

"What? That doesn't make sense! As the Jinchuriki of the Yin Half, I would be a huge asset in the war!" Ryu protested.

"She has a point!"

"I know that!" Tsunade snarled, slamming her hands down on the desk. "I was backed into a corner by the other Kages! You are going, voluntarily or involuntarily! I will knock you out, tie you up and seal your chakra if I need to, Ryu!" She threatened. Ryu glared and growled lowly but didn't argue. "Go pack your things, you head out today."

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Naruto walked up to the gate where Yamato and Aoba was waiting. "Okay, let's-" Yamato started but was pushed aside by Gai. He put his hands on Naruto's shoulders.

"Now, young man...time to go!" Gai said with enthusiasm and pointed towards the road.

"Oiii! You're missing a member!" A voice called out to the group. They turned and noticed Kakashi waving.

"Kakashi! My eternal rival! What are you doing here?" Gai asked. Kakashi pointed to the reluctant Ryu, walking slowly towards them.

"Escorting Ryu here to make sure she comes." He replied. Naruto blinked in surprise.

"Oh, Ryu is coming along?" Naruto grinned. Kakashi nodded.

"Yea, she's coming along, not voluntarily though. Tsunade-sama made her." Ryu finally got to them and was standing by Kakashi's side with a tight grip on her backpack and was looking away from them. Kakashi raised his hand and gently placed it on her head and rubbed back and forth, like he was petting a dog. "Now, be a good girl, okay?" He said, eye-smiling at her.

Yamato, Aoba and Naruto sweat-dropped at the treatment Kakashi was giving her. Ryu growled and turned, biting his hand furiously enough to draw blood. The two of them glared at each other with malice and the other three backed away. "We should be heading off." Yamato said, loudly enough for Ryu to hear. She let go of Kakashi's hand and walked towards Naruto, Aoba, Yamato and Gai. They started walking off towards the village that they would be boarding a ship to get to the island in Kumogakure.

Ryu turned and yelled at Kakashi, "You better not get yourself killed this time, Kakashi-baka! I'll revive you to just kill you again if you do!" Kakashi shook his head and laughed.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

They reached the village within a couple hours and boarded the ship without trouble. It was a simple and small one that was posing as a merchant ship to not arouse any suspicions. The instant they had started going towards the open sea, Gai became seasick and everyone avoided him to not get puked on.

Ryu climbed to the crow's nest to get a good look at everything and to not be bothered. She eventually fell asleep with the sea breeze lulling her to sleep.

-Flashback-

_Ryu and Naruto were running away from the villagers that were throwing rocks at them. They had just wanted to buy some ice cream to snack on with the money Jiji had given them. But they had been chased away. "Demon Foxes! You should just go die and pay for the sins you committed!" They yelled and snarled. With Naruto in the lead and Ryu struggling to keep up with her physically stronger brother, it wasn't long until she tripped. _

_They instantly when after her, throwing rocks at her and kicking her. Ryu refused to make a sound, knowing it would give them satisfaction. The villagers had completely ignored Naruto and was focused on her. Naruto was staring at her through the cracks between the feet of the adults. Ryu's eyes connected with his and she just stared at him, showing no pain at all. _

_Suddenly, after an especially hard kick to the side, a loud crack was heard. There was a split second pause before the pain hit Ryu and tears flowed from her eyes and she let of a blood-curdling shriek of pain. Naruto's eyes widened and he rushed towards Ryu, trying to push through the crowd of villagers. _

"_Hey! What's going on here?" A voice called out. The villagers turned and noticed the animal mask of an ANBU. They scattered away instantly. Naruto finally got to Ryu and saw that she was unconscious. However, with both of them only being five, he thought she was dead for a couple minutes until he noticed her breathing. He turned towards the ANBU. _

"_Please! Help my sister! You are one of the good guys who guard Jiji, please help her!" He said, running up to them and tugging the Cat-masked ANBU. The man kneeled down besides the unconscious Ryu. He gently picked her up, careful not to jolt her. He looked at Naruto. _

"_Hold onto me." He instructed gently. Naruto nodded and grabbed onto the man's pants and they shunshinned to the Hospital. _

_~The Kyuubi Twins~_

_Ryu woke up hours later to an unfamiliar place and almost started panicking until she saw a familiar blond head. She poked Naruto which made him jump up immediately. "Ryu? Ryu! You're awake!" He said happily. She nodded. "I have to go get the nurse. She told me to get her when you woke up." Naruto stood up from his chair and walked towards the door and opened it slightly. The ANBU that had been standing guard, looked over to see Naruto poke his head out and look around. _

"_Do you need something?" The wolf-masked ANBU asked. Naruto nodded. _

"_My sister is awake. The nurse told me to come get her when she did." He replied. The wolf-masked ANBU straightened up from his position of leaning against the wall. _

"_I'll get her for you. You keep your sister company." The ANBU said and poofed away. Naruto closed the door and went back to Ryu who had been waiting patiently. She looked at him with confusion. _

"_Were you not going to go get the nurse?" She asked. _

"_The nice animal mask man went to get her for us!" Naruto replied, with a smile. _

"_Okay." Ryu smiled back. They didn't have to wait long when a knock interrupted their fast chattering that they could only understand. The nurse walked in and so did the Third Hokage and the Cat and Wolf-masked ANBU. The nurse smiled gently at the two and walked up to Ryu. _

"_Are you in any pain or discomfort?" She asked. Ryu shook her head. "Alright, I'm going to examine you and press my fingers gently where you have bandages and you tell me if I'm causing any pain okay?" _

"_Okay." The nurse gently started pressing her fingers on Ryu's legs, where there had been a fracture and she worked her way up to Ryu's left ribs where a couple had been broken. Ryu winced. The nurse backed up and her hands infused in healing chakra and she went back to Ryu's ribs and after a pause the nurse blinked in surprise. _

"_What is it, Tsunade?" Sarutobi asked. _

"_The break in her ribs has healed to a fracture. I think by tomorrow, it will be completely healed." Tsunade frowned. _

"_That is good." Sarutobi noted. _

"_Yes, that's good. But how did this happen in the first place? Why wasn't any of the ANBU watching the two?!" Tsunade growled. _

"_I can't keep ANBU watching them all throughout the day." Sarutobi sighed. _

"_Then let me train Ryu. In both medical ninjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu." Tsunade suggested. _

"_Why just Ryu?" Sarutobi asked. _

"_She shows the ability to control her chakra. I think the Uzumaki Clan's strong life force flows strong in her and her healing ability has been increased because of it. I believe if she tried, she could manifest those chains that Kushina was famous for." Tsunade replied. _

"_Alright, I give you permission to do so." He said reluctantly, fearing another Tsunade was in the making, especially with how Ryu had showed the temper of Kushina's. _

_~The Kyuubi Twins~_

_During the time that Tsunade trained Ryu, she found out that Ryu had indeed inherited the powerful blood of the Uzumaki Clan. Her chakra was extraordinary. It was able to reinforce her muscles with strength that could be in par with her own when she grew older. But the thing that made Tsunade so awed by it was that the chakra did it on its own. From what Tsunade noticed, Ryu did not focus any chakra into her fist, she merely clenched it and some of her chakra automatically just would reinforce her fist. _

_It made Tsunade wonder how strong Ryu would be if she consciously focused chakra into her fist. Tsunade also found out that Ryu also had near perfect chakra control. The only time that she was not able to control her chakra was when she was angry. The chakra seemed to act on its own and reinforce her arms and legs to an amount that she was not usually able to direct her chakra to that amount. _

_Tsunade made the conclusion that though Ryu had some of Minato's brains, she had inherited the thick and powerful Uzumaki bloodline. Her life force would flare strong and her chakra would protect her at all costs, like somehow Kushina was protecting Ryu through the chakra. _

_~The Kyuubi Twins~_

_It would go on for the next couple months. It would seem like Ryu also taught Naruto some of the things she learned with Tsunade. It was mostly things that would help him get away from the chunin when he did pranks. With the both of them having some knowledge of chakra and controlling it, they were basically a force to be reckoned with. They were dubbed 'The Unpredictable Twins' instead of the 'Demon Fox Twins'. _

_When Naruto entered the Academy and Ryu had more free-time since Tsunade had already taught her the basics of ninjutsu, taijutsu and medical ninjutsu. Ryu started exploring the village, looking around for who their parents were. Ryu had been bothering Hiruzen about who the twin's parents were, when he shook his head and merely glanced at the Yondaime's head on the Hokage Monument. She had caught the look and followed his glance and her eyes widened. "Our father is the Yondaime Hokage?!" She exclaimed. Hiruzen winced and sighed. He thought to himself, _'Ryu is too sharp for her own good.' _Hiruzen did not give her an answer but Ryu had already left the office and headed towards the library. _

_There she looked up all the information about the Yondaime Hokage and learned about the heroic deeds he did for the village and how he was nicknamed, "The Yellow Flash of Konoha." She read about how he was the fastest ninja ever to be known and she decided that she wanted to become as close as she could to Namikaze Minato and make him proud. _

_However, as she was reading, she had stumbled over the fact that the other villages did not like him very much and it was possible that he was still in their bingo books even for the fact that he had died. She deducted that the knowledge that if anyone found out that Naruto and Ryu were Namikaze Minato's kids, the both of them would be in trouble so she decided to keep the knowledge to herself. _

_Ryu then wondered where did their last name 'Uzumaki' come from? She looked at the records of the Uzumaki Clan and their superior sealing jutsu and how their life forces were very strong but nothing on who Naruto and Ryu's mother. What she did find was the First Hokage's wife and she grinned at the fact that she was somewhat related to her. As she looked, all she was able to find was a name and simple records._

**Name: **Uzumaki Kushina

**Sex: **Female

**Date of Birth: **July 10

**Height: **165 cm

**Weight: **47 kg

**Blood Type: **B

**Ninja Registration: **007310

_Ryu frowned at the lack of records and wondered if she should go ask Jiji about it or Tsunade-baachan. She decided to ask Tsunade when she came back to the village from her travelling. _

_~The Kyuubi Twins~_

_It was one years later, at age eight that Ryu found out about Hiraishin and started using it. It was also that year that Hiruzen disgruntledly allowed her to join as an ANBU-in-training, only to go on missions with at least a seasoned ANBU. It was during the beginning of the new Academy year, where Naruto entered that Ryu was introduced to her shishou, Wolf. _

_She could see the surprise in his body language that she was so young but also surprise about something else that she couldn't place. Though her curiosity was peaked, she decided that it wasn't her place to ask about it since she did not know her new shishou at all. As she trained with him, they got closer. It wasn't very long after that they went on S-class missions. With the success rate of their missions, they were quickly dubbed, "Team Demon." _

-Flashback Ends-

Ryu woke up from her nap on the crow's nest and heard the murmuring of Yamato, Aoba and Gai. She looked down and saw that Gai wasn't leaning over the railing and vomiting for once. The three of them were sitting around the map with a lantern for lighting. She heard them talking about the true purpose of the mission, which she already knew about and wasn't happy about it.

She also noticed that when Naruto opened the door to the main deck from the room that he was sleeping in, Yamato and Aoba grabbed Gai and shut his mouth so he wouldn't accidently let Naruto know what they were really doing on the boat. Naruto rushed over to the side of the deck and Ryu sweat-dropped at his sleepy-talking. '_Rasen-pee?' _She saw him turn and notice Yamato, Aoba and Gai and they started making lame excuses for why they were out on the deck so late.

Then everyone started settling down, with Gai and Naruto keeping watch. Naruto was on his back and he was looking towards the sky. He noticed Ryu was watching him and she stuck out her tongue at him and popped back out of sight in the crow's nest. Gai and Naruto started talking and Ryu lost interest.

She felt a gentle tug on the bond that was between her and Kakashi and she perked up. She tugged back and felt amusement come from him. She could feel that he was coming closer the the bond between them was growing stronger, rather than the weak connection they had because of how far apart they were.

It was a couple minutes later when she truly heard his voice. "Gai! Ooooiii!...Gai!"

"Did someone just call my name?" Gai asked, sitting up from his previous laying down and sleeping. Ryu peaked her head over from the crow's nest and watched.

"Over here!" Kakashi called. Gai crawled over to the edge and spotted Kakashi standing on the rocks by the ship.

"Oh! It's you, Kakashi! Huh? Why are you out on the water?" Gai asked, rubbing his eye and then pulling his cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming. As Ryu watched Gai and Kakashi, she was confused at why Gai suddenly became wary and aggressive. After Gai asked about their rivalry, he suddenly started attacking.

She got up, prepared to jump down but she saw Kakashi shake his head no. '_**Don't come down here. You are safer up there, I don't want you to get caught up in any of Gai's attacks.'**_

'_**B-but!'**_

'_**No.'**_ He frowned at her and she sighed, defeated. She saw Aoba and Yamato rush out and Gai attack them with one of the gate attacks and she frowned in worry. Then she heard,

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT ANYMORE! THAT WAS BACK WHEN I WAS A KID!" Gai yelled.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"Kakashi, I really had thought the enemy has infiltrated us. What are you doing here anyways?" Gai asked.

"I already told you! You sent your Ninja Tortoise SOS to us. So I rushed over." Kakashi explained.

"Eh?" Aoba and Yamato exclaimed together.

"So, back then when something whizzed past us…" Yamato mused.

"Gai was sending his Ninja Tortoise out?" Aoba finished.

"That time….? Oh!" Gai said, remembering. He rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, sorry." Yamato and Aoba sweat-dropped.

"So you caused this, Gai." Gai laughed.

"How are things in the village?" He asked.

"He just changed the subject." Aoba deadpanned.

"Well..things have gotten a bit complicated." Kakashi said seriously.

"What's wrong?" Gai asked.

"I'll contact you again once it's all decided." Kakashi dodged, turning to go. Ryu landed in front of him with an angry expression on her face.

"You thought you could leave without saying anything to me?!" She snarled. Kakashi backed up a couple steps.

"I have to get back to the village, Ryu. Things still need to be finalized." He explained. She pouted and turned her head away.

"I could have helped." She murmured. He raised his hand and gently set it on her head.

"I know, but Hokage's orders. You are to be hidden away safely with Naruto." She walked up and hugged him.

"I miss you." She whispered into his chest. He hugged her back.

"Me too." He kissed the top of her head. "Now I must go. I'll contact you when I can." He walked to the edge and whistled, Sai coming to get him and they flew back to the village.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: As usual!~ **

**Plus I have a question for you all at the end of the chapter, so Enjoy! **

After weeks of being on the ship, when they finally arrived at the island, Ryu was relieved. She

was getting sick of being on the same boat, however Gai was the one that was the most

relieved, relieved, not having to deal with his seasickness. She was on the crow's nest still, just staring at

the island they were coming closer to. She could hear the roars of whatever was on the island

and it looked incredibly malicious. "...Paradise?" Naruto said with a horror-stricken face.

"It's kind of like Konoha's Forest of Death, except I think the island is worse." Ryu glared at the

island and a low snarl came from her. "Anyways,..nothing to fear. Don't bother the animals and

they won't bother you. Except…"

"Except what?" Yamato asked, cautiously but with curiosity in his voice.

"How the hell is this paradise?! Stupid senile super-size sage!" Naruto butted in, yelling in

frustration and hopes crushed.

"It lives near the shore.." A huge tentacle appeared from behind the ship and Ryu instantly

jumped down from the crow's nest. Naruto perked up.

"Hey! An octopus tentacle! Mister Octopus! Show me the way!" Naruto yelled in excitement,

lifting his arms up with a huge grin.

"Naruto...that's not an octopus! It's a giant squid!" Ryu said, punching his head for being an

idiot.

'**When the hell did squids grow that big?! It's almost my size!' ** Kurama shouted in her

mind, his fur puffing up like a cat's in surprise.

"Th-that's it! That's the one animal I was going to say that we need to avoid!"

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…" Naruto started counting the tentacles.

"Why are you counting?! You can see it's obviously a squid!" Yamato yelled at him.

"I want to make sure! Octopus have eight arms and squids have ten…" One of the squid's

tentacle was heading towards them in an alarming rate to attack them. Ryu braced herself,

prepared to go into Tailed Beast Mode.

"You're gonna get fried, squid! Time to say goodbye, kid!" A giant octopus like thing sang.

"What the hell is that rhyming thing?!"

"This is madness!"

"5, 6, 7, 8. Octopus! This is an octopus!"

"Pay attention to the situation, dammit! It's going to be a miracle if the boat doesn't get

destroyed!"

"It's Killer Bee-sama!"

"Killer Bee? Then he's-"

"Ya'll motherf*ckers are late, yo!"

~The Kyuubi Twins~

After being shown where they would be staying, Ryu went off into the forest and wandered

around, completely hiding her presence so the giant animals of the island wouldn't bother her.

She looped around the island twice, to make sure she would know where to go and not to go.

Then she flashed to the kunai in Naruto's weapon pouch, scaring Motoi, Yamato and Naruto.

"Jeez, I can never get used to you appearing out of nowhere!" Yamato sighed, shaking his head..

Ryu just grinned.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking around, noticing that they were standing in front of a

waterfall.

"We are at the Fall of Truths." Motoi said. He walked towards the small hill in front of the

waterfall. "Sit here and close your eyes, Naruto. You will see who you truly are inside."

"Alright." Naruto said, sitting on the hill and closing his eyes. After a couple minutes, Yamato

asked Motoi,

"What's going on?" Ryu perked up from where she was staring at the sky in curiousity.

"By meditating in front of the falls, you can venture inside your own spirit. The Falls become a

mirror that reflects one's true self. Naruto is now fighting himself in his own mind." He explained,

glancing at Ryu.

"What?" She asked.

"Will you be doing the same thing?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I am in agreement with the Yin half." Motoi nodded his head in understanding.

"However, it will still be a good learning experience." He advised.

'**He has a point. Try it out when Naruto wakes up.' ** Kurama spoke up. Ryu rolled her eyes

and then nodded her head, signalling to Motoi that she would try it out. Naruto's eyes snapped

open and he jumped away from the hill. Ryu jumped on and sat, closing her eyes.

" _Well, well. This Falls of Truth is rather unusual, being able to bring me out." _Her voice drawled,

amused. Ryu opened her eyes and she saw her, but with nine swirling fox tails and ears to

match and red eyes.

"You...are me?" Ryu asked hesitantly.

" _Yes. I am you. Tsunade has noticed me before but didn't think too much of it. She wouldn't _

_have been able to understand anyways." _She replied.

"Why the fox tails and ears?"

"_Oh, because I am not only your chakra, but I also consist of Kurama's also. I am the perfect _

_combination of your chakra and Kurama's. This power is quite frightening. You have used me _

_before." _Her demon-self smiled.

"W-what?" Ryu frowned, trying to remember.

"_Don't bother trying to remember. It was during the Jounin exam. You almost died and _

_accidently tapped into me. In fact, I am the reason Kakashi gave you that earring that can seal _

_my chakra." _She explained. Ryu frowned in silence.

"What's the use of having a separate chakra?" She asked finally.

"_Well, I am your chakra. You have two. I am one and the other is Kurama's. Like I said, I am the _

_perfect combination of your chakra and Kurama's, just normally the two chakras are not _

_combined. The chakra you use is me. Your chakra simply has its own consciousness, me." _

Demon-Ryu explained.

"So, what are you a demon me?"

" _No. I'm more similar to the foxes that you can summon. Aoi and Kuro was it? Except I have _

_nine tails instead of one. But might as well consider me a demon. _" She smirked. _"Anyways, now _

_that you have the knowledge about me, it is up to you on how you will use this knowledge. _

_Wake up, Naruto's back to try again." _

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu yawned as she followed behind Killer Bee, Yamato and Naruto into the sacred temple

where Killer Bee and trained to control Tako *** **. Naruto stuck his head into the head-thing that the

switch was in and apparently only the "pure-hearted" could pull the switch.

"GUUUAAAAHHHHH!"" Naruto screamed.

"Naruto!" Yamato said, instantly running forward and pulling him out. However, it was too late,

Naruto was headless. "Oh my god…! No! Naruto…!"

"Gotcha!" Naruto said, laughing and popping his head up from his jacket. "There was just a

switch inside."

"..." Yamato and Ryu stared at him in disbelief.

"I knew you two would fall for that." Naruto grinned.

"Man, I did that same joke!~ And I was only playin', those statues are just broke!" Killer Bee

rapped.

"THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A SACRED TEMPLE, MOTHERF*KER!" Yamato yelled. Ryu kicked

Naruto on his side and he went flying into the door that opened up when he flipped the switch.

Killer Bee, Yamato and Ryu walked in after him.

"Sit down, close your eyes and focus. Just like at the falls, except this time you will be face to

face with your bijuu." Bee instructed.

"I learned how to go into my own mind and talk to the fox a while ago…" Naruto replied,

frowning in confusion.

"Any jinchuuriki can do that! This place is slightly different, okay?" Bee explained.

'**This place acts as a sealing container if Naruto fails and my Yang Half gets loose. It **

**seems like.' **Kurama commented.

'_That won't happen. Especially since our mom's chakra is built into the seal for when we attempt _

_to control our respective half, she will help.' _ Ryu thought, smiling at the memory of meeting

Kushina.

-Flashback-

"**Oh? Brat, what are you doing here?" **Kurama snarled. Ryu stared at him without fear.

"I am here to negotiate with you." She replied. Kurama started laughing.

" **Negotiate? What does a brat like you have that can possibly negotiate with me? **" He

sneered.

"A nicer scenery. I don't know about you but I don't like how this sewer is. It's disgusting." She

said, with a frown on her face.

" **Hmph! That has nothing to do with me. **" He said, closing his eyes to go back to sleep.

"It does have something to do with you, since you reside in my body. Whether you like it or not. I

don't want to treat you as a tool but rather as a respected asset." She said seriously.

" **You...you are wise for your age brat. Respected asset hm? Sounds interesting. **" He

rumbled. She nodded.

"You have lived for a very long time, no? You probably have far more knowledge than most of

the people living today!" She said, growing excited. Kurama opened an eye.

" **Brat, I'm getting tired. Do whatever you want. **" He said, before going to sleep.

"That's amazing, Ryuuko. You got him to be so...amiable." A woman's voice said. Ryu turned,

instantly on her guard and saw a woman with long red hair and a soft, loving gaze in her eyes.

"W-who are you?!" Ryu demanded. The woman sighed and shook her head, raising a fist.

"J-jeez! That Minato, not telling you who I am even when he had more time with you,

dattebane!"

"D-Dattebane?" Ryu gaped. The woman nodded.

"It's a verbal tic I have when I get angry...haha…" The woman replied.

"T-then...a-are you my-...our m-m-mom, dattebane?" Ryu asked, her voice trembling and tears

threatening to fall.

"Ah..you got my verbal tic, didn't you?" The woman smiled. "Un. I'm your mom. Uzumaki

Kushina." Ryu started crying and ran to Kushina and hugged her.

"M-mommy!" She cried into Kushina's apron. Kushina smiled and hugged Ryu tightly, a hint of

sorrow in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry for leaving my two precious babies all alone. Mommy has always watched you

two." She said, kissing the top of Ryu's head.

"It's okay. Just knowing that you and dad did want us, makes up for it." Ryu replied. Kushina

hugged Ryu even tighter.

"You're so mature at such a young age. I'm so sorry. You should still be having fun, not caring

about a thing at this age. However, mommy must put a heavier burden on your shoulders. I

have to tell you the truth about the day you were born…"

-Flashback Ends-

Ryu looked over to Naruto and saw him covered in the kyuubi cloak, with the transformation

stopped half way. She walked over and sat down, setting her hand on his shoulder and closed

her eyes. She appeared besides Naruto and Kushina, surprising them both. "I'll help too!" She

said. More chakra chains tied Kurama down, except these had a hint of lightning in them,

strengthening them a tad bit.

" **Don't interfere! **" Yang Kurama snarled.

"Naruto! Now's your chance!" Kushina and Ryu called out. Yang Kurama started pulling off the

chains as Naruto and his clone rushed with their rasengans at the ready.

" **Don't get cocky! **" Yang Kurama growled in rage, at that moment both Kushina and Ryu pulled

on their chains that they had on his leg, making him fall. At that moment, Naruto entered sage

mode and the rasengans became even larger.

"Senpo: Cho Odama Rasendarengan!" Yang Kurama was blown back and Naruto used that

chance to grab onto strands of Yang Kurama's chakra. "Almost there!" Naruto yelled, hitting

Yang Kurama with one last rasengan, separating Yang Kurama's chakra.

" **Naruto...you..YOU HAVE ANGERED ME! **" He started gathering chakra for a bijuu bomb and

that was when Ryu stood besides Naruto and there was another person standing besides her, a

humanoid form of Kurama. Yang Kurama felt the similar chakra and stopped his bijuu bomb and

stared in surprise. " **You...why?" **

" _**Because these two have potential. You'll see it for yourself soon. **__" _Yin Kurama replied.

Then Naruto closed the seal on Yang Kurama with an apologetic expression on his face.

"Sorry, Kyuubi..but I won't treat you badly...just wait a little bit longer…" He said as Yang

Kurama's consciousness faded away into slumber.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu opened her eyes. There was no need for her to be there for when their mother explained

what happened on the day of their birth. "What happened? How'd it go?" Yamato asked. She

smiled.

"It went pretty good. He'll explain it in detail." She replied, walking off towards the doorway they

had gone through. When she had gone into the room, she sorta felt like a part of her was sealed

away, but then that's what the room was for. So once she got out, she gave a small sigh in relief.

She was honestly very bored on the island and wanted to go wreck havoc somewhere. Ryu

grinned evilly when she got an idea. She quickly created a shadow clone and then she, herself

used Hiraishin to go to Kakashi.

She popped up right besides Kakashi as he was speaking to another shinobi about the supplies

and where to put them. She startled both of them, the other shinobi even putting up a kunai in

defense. Kakashi just sighed in response. "What are you doing here, Ryu? You're supposed to

be hidden _away. _" She scratched her head sheepishly.

"It's boring on the island. Naruto is just training on how to control Kurama while I've done that for

a while now. So I left a clone there and I'm currently suppressing my chakra so

Tsunade-baachan can't sense me." She replied, smiling. "I want to help so put me to work!"

Kakashi stared at her for a bit before shaking his head.

"Henge. If Sakura finds you she'd pummel you into next week." He ordered. She nodded and

did so, turning into a brown haired and eyed girl, even going to hide her whiskers. She also

pulled the hairband from her ponytail, letting it fall down her back. She had also changed her

ANBU gear into normal shinobi gear.

"There we go! So can I help now?" She asked, with a smile. Kakashi nodded, ruffling her hair.

"Go help wherever you can." He told her. She ran off and started helping with anything she

could, often using her Tsunade trained strength to lift things that required two or more people.

She had even walked and worked with a couple of the same generation of Konoha shinobi,

often sticking her tongue out at them when they weren't looking.

However, she somehow managed to avoid Sakura and hoped that the makings of an even more

violent Tsunade - Sakura, really wouldn't find her. Who knows what Sakura would do to her.

She'd probably have a couple bruises and maybe a couple broken bones too. But it would be

useless to worry about it and Ryu wasn't an ANBU who specialized in infiltration and

assassination for nothing!

~The Kyuubi Twins~

Ryu was sitting on her knees and with her head bowed down a bit as Sakura was cracking her

knuckles. "You were sent to that island for a reason, Ryu." She snarled.

"It's incredibly boring on that island! It's used to train Jinchuuriki, so there's nothing to do and I

don't want to keep on lying to Naruto about the real reason why we are there." Ryu defended.

"What if the enemy finds out you are here, huh?" Sakura retorted. Ryu rolled her eyes.

"Stop treating me like a child, Sakura. I've been a Jounin for far longer than you have. Have you

also forgotten that I'm also ANBU? I can easily go back to the island within an instant." She

replied, standing up. "Don't you need to go back to organizing the medical supplies? I'm going

back to helping. An extra pair of hands will never hurt anyone." With that, Ryu turned and was

about to leave when she got a sudden flood of information from her clone.

She sighed and cursed. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked, now concerned.

"You'll find out soon enough." Ryu replied vaguely, running towards the area where she had felt

multiple Kage-level chakra gather. It didn't take a while for her to land next to Tsunade, which

startled the woman.

"What do you need?" Tsunade asked Ryu, not recognizing her with the henge and chakra

suppression. She released her henge and Tsunade instantly frowned at her with disapproval.

"You are lucky that you are an ANBU specialized in infiltration and assassination, and have

perfected your chakra suppression or I would have severely punished you." Tsuchikage then set

down the turtle-island down on the spot that was arranged for it to go. "Go back in with Naruto."

Tsunade ordered.

"B-but!" Ryu protested. Tsunade glared at her. "Can I say bye to Kakashi first then?" She sighed.

"Then you must go back onto the island instantly!" Tsunade allowed. She grinned and went off,

running around the base to look for Kakashi and she found him, preparing all the kunai and

other things he'd need for the war. He turned to her with an eye-smile and ruffled her hair when

she got close enough. "Be careful, okay? Don't die again. I won't guarantee anyone's safety if

that happens." She said seriously.

"I'll try my best." He replied. He reached into one of his bags and pulled out his Konoha

headband, giving it to her. "Keep it safe, okay?" He said, softly. She handed it back to him and

then gestured to her left arm.

"Tie it for me there?" He did, making it a double knot to make sure it wouldn't slip off her arm. It

was the only place she could think of that she would be able to keep it safely, since her own was tied around her neck. She stood there, waiting for him while he just stared at her with an

amused look in his eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to be going back to the island?" He asked. Her eyes narrowed in irritation

and she threw a fast punch at him to his stomach, with enough power to cause him pain but not

injury. He coughed and rubbed his stomach.

"Stupid Baka-Kakashi! I hate you! You can go die!" She snarled, stomping off, leaving him

confused and staring after her.

*** - Tako is Octopus in Japanese for anything that didn't know. **

**Sorry for the delay! I have no excuses except for writer's block and how I was going to **

**tackle the part of Gai vs Kisame. I don't know when the next chapter will be out but I **

**promise that I am working on it! **

**Question: Now that we are on the Fourth Great Ninja War Arc of Naruto, I have a question **

**for everyone, would you like to see Ryu follow and support Naruto OR should Ryu go to **

**Kakashi and fight alongside him? **

**What happens is all up to you! **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: Is in Chapters 1,5,10,15 and soon to be 20? **

**On another note, I'M ALIVE! **

Chapter Eighteen

Ryu was restless, sitting in the room watching Naruto attempt to stack the stones carefully to make sure they stay balanced. When he finally achieved it, Bee said something to him and then walked out of the room, with her following but she wasn't really paying attention. Bee took them to another area with another switch needing to be opened. "..This is getting really annoying." Naruto commenting, poking his head in the eight-tails statue to reach for the switch.

" This is the entrance to a different place! Where the final stage of your training will resume! So shut up and get in the room! " The door opened and the three walked into the room. It was another white room. Ryu looked around, confused.

"What is this room for?" She asked.

"To teach the strongest move a jinchuuriki can learn." Bee replied. Ryu frowned for a bit then realized.

"Oh! The tailed-beast bomb!" Bee nodded. He turned to Naruto and started explaining on what to do and when Naruto tried to turn into the kyuubi, he instead turned into a tiny fox with nine tails. She instantly bursted into laughter. Naruto glared at her.

"I want to see you try!" He growled. She smirked and with a flourish, a kyuubi stood in her place.

"How did you learn by yourself?" Bee asked, surprised. She shook her head.

"I didn't. Kurama taught me. I became friends with him pretty early on. I'm not like my knucklehead brother." She replied.

"Hey!" Naruto protested.

"However, Naruto, moving on. You won't be able to do the tailed-beast bomb in just cloak form. It'll backlash on your hands. I can tell you how to do it though. It's like rasengan, but with tailed beast chakra, which is black for positive and white for negative. You have to add up to ten with them but mostly with black at eight to two." Ryu explained. He nodded in understanding but disregarded her advice on not being able to do in just cloak form and started trying anyways. "Oi! I just told you that you won't be able to!"

"I won't know until I keep on trying and you know best that I learn from experience! Just tell me when I hit the eight to two ratio!" He replied. After a couple tries, Naruto got close to forming the tailed-beast bomb but he lost focus and it disappeared again.

" Man, you almost had it on that try! But you lost focus and that don't fly! "

"..." Naruto frowned, as did Ryu. They both felt the disturbance in the Kyuubi's chakra, but while he didn't know what caused it, she had a suspicion that something was going on outside. Worry filled her eyes, she knew there was a barrier in place to keep from the enemy sensing where they were and to also keep them out. She knew because it also cut off the connection she had with Kakashi.

Naruto collapsed on the floor, breathing hard. " You're stinkin' up the joint cuz you stopped workin' hard. Lying there like a tub of lard! "

"..." Naruto sat up and sighed. "I've actually had something else on my mind." His chakra cloak disappeared. "Earlier I swear I felt the nine-tails' chakra but there's no way anyone but me and Ryu have his chakra, right?" The twins gazed at Bee with an intense stare, making him sweat a bit before replying,

" You're imagining things...this is a chakra-isolation chamber, so inside-or-out, only you two have the nine tails' chakra, there's no doubt! " The two stared at him in doubt.

"Where's the bathroom?" Naruto asked.

"Out the door, your first left." Bee answered without thinking. Naruto started heading towards the door.

"Wait up, I need to go too!" Ryu called out, quickly following him. They started running towards the exit, ignoring the directions to the bathroom. A group of shinobi stood in front of them, blocking the exit.

"Freeze, you two! I'm sorry but I can't let you two pass. Please go back to your training room."

"You're Shino's dad...what are you doing here? Why are all of you guarding us?" Naruto asked.

"Let's go back, we'll talk then." He dismissed.

"We can talk outside, just as easily." Ryu retorted.

"I'll talk to him, Gen-san." Iruka stepped out from behind the group.

"I-Iruka-sensei?!" Naruto startled. Iruka nodded then started explaining to Naruto a made-up story about a beast outside on the island going out of control. Ryu rolled her eyes and Naruto could feel the annoyance from her, disbelieving the story. He went into sage mode and charged.

"Don't let him out!"

"Right!" The shinobi tried to block him from going out, along with Ryu, but with the two working together, they pushed them out of the exit and outside. Naruto froze, the rush of information from sage mode flooding him. She frowned, still uncontent that her connection with Kakashi was yet to be restored.

"_I'll end this war myself, I'll endure all the pain and hate on my own! That's my role!" _Naruto said, his voice unwavering. Iruka bent down to pick up Naruto's headband that fell off during the charge to go outside. Ryu was wary of Iruka as he was approaching to give it back to Naruto. She jumped back just as he activated the barrier.

"No! I can't let you leave!"

"Sensei, I told you...I'm way stronger than I used to be. This barrier can't hold me." He broke out of the barrier with the chakra cloak and leapt out, with Ryu following close behind, using the cloak as well. "Sis, you can use the cloak as well?!" Naruto asked, surprised.

"...I have the Kyuubi's chakra too, dattebane! Of course I can use it!" She exclaimed, baffled at her brother's idiocy. He chuckled.

"Right! I forgot!" She punched him in the arm as a response. They reached the barrier in record time and both stopped and at that moment, a tailed beast bomb from behind them fired at the barrier, breaking some layers but not all of them.

"They put up a barrier to keep us contained. But we're gonna smash through like a window pane. ~" All three of them jumped and Bee threw another tailed beast bomb, with Naruto pushing through. They pushed through and entered a place they couldn't recognize.

"What is this place? This isn't the island!"

"Don't sweat the small details!~ " The three of them headed out.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"Granny?!"

"N-no brassiere!"

"BEEEE! How dare you stare at the Hokage's chest at a time like this?!"

"N-no I meant to say 'brother' and tripped on the 'T', but since you mentioned it, I bet the Hokage's an 'E'!"

"We're here to put a stop to this! You three aren't going any step further!" Ryu took a couple steps back. Tsunade sent a glare at her.

"Don't you dare...Ryu." She gulped.

"B-but Tsunade-baachan! I'm not like Naruto! I've been an ANBU for years, and a jounin! I can help! I can defend myself, _plus_ I can easily escape if needed! I have hiraishin!" She protested.

"You still have the Kyuubi in you and that means we're protecting you as well as your brother, even if you don't think you need protecting." Tsunade replied, sternly.

"I'm just going to the side of one of the strongest ninjas of Konoha!" Ryu argued. "I can't let him die _again_!" Tsunade sighed.

"I'm surprised you haven't used hiraishin to go by now, but I guess that's the respect you have for me. Fine, go."

"Hokage!" The Raikage protested. Tsunade shrugged.

"If you can catch her, then feel free but I'm informing you, she's just as fast as the Fourth Hokage, and with the kyuubi's chakra bolstering that speed, as you just saw with Naruto, I think she's faster." Ryu nodded and smiled at Tsunade.

"Thank you, Tsunade-baachan! I'll be off now!" She reported, then disappeared, barely leaving any trace that she had just been standing there talking to them. There had only been a pop of light as any indication.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

"...So, at last...the enemy's reinforcements and it's another huge army of them." Kakashi sighed.

"They're white. Are these the guys that have been transforming into our chakra patterns?! Let's clean them all out right here, Kakashi!" Gai replied, getting fired up. A figure dropped down from the sky, a fist sparking with lightning chakra and smashed into the group with the punch, not only destroying the ground where the white Zetsus were running towards everyone but also spreading lightning which chained to each of them to destroy them.

"Their side isn't the only one with reinforcements!" Ryu smirked.

"What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked, frowning at her.

"I escaped!" She replied, proudly. Looks of disbelief were shot at her as they continued fighting. "I'll deal with the white zetsu, you two focus on the edo tensei!" Gai and Kakashi nodded. Ryu continued casually, punching with lightning infused chakra fists that would chain to other zetsu. They tried to transform into a Kakashi look alike so an opening would appear but she just continued without no hesitation.

"W-why?!"

"Malice, plus I always wanted to defeat him, and another couple of things. You can try to transform to anyone you like, I wouldn't flinch." She shrugged.

"Hey, Ryu! Didn't you go and try to learn more about the Uzumaki fuinjutsu? Do you know any that would help with sealing the edo tensei?" Kakashi called out.

"No, not really! I told you that my search wasn't very fruitful, but I did learn how to use these better!" Her hand shot out, aiming for one of the remaining Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, an adamantine sealing chain flying towards them and piercing their body, stopping their movements as a member of the sealing squad was able to seal them properly.

"...Why didn't you use them earlier?" He asked.

"Because I can't use them to their full ability yet. I can stop their movements temporarily at best and because they are not alive, I can't use the other function my chains have."

"And that is?"

"Steal chakra. The chains are usually for sealing chakra, right? I found out mine can steal it too."

"_Why_ haven't you been using them?!"

"I forgot I even could use them!" She replied, cheerily. Both Kakashi and Gai sweat-dropped. They forgot that she was related to Naruto, with his knuckle-headedness. She rarely showed this side to her, as she was forced to mature quicker than Naruto. Kakashi's question made her think and she wondered if she could use them beyond what she found out they could be used for. She knew the chains were connected to her chakra and she paused in her punching, the chains dropping onto the floor from both of her arms.

She started using them as weapons, lightning chakra sparkling on them as well and it was working great on the white zetsu as she could control the chains quite easily. It would cut them down in giant waves and those who did manage to dodge them, it would merely circle back. If they got near enough to try and attack her, she would apply Tsunade's brutal dodge training and flit away or even use them as a stepping stone to jump away, making sure to apply enough chakra to crush them while jumping away of course.

As Ryu was fighting the white Zetsu, she felt a massive pulling pain within the seal that held Kurama, which caused her to get hit and go flying. _'What was that?!'_ She panickedly asked Kurama, who was snarling with rage.

'_**That was Madara trying to summon me!'**_He snarled.

'_WHAT? I thought we were fighting this war to stop Madara?!' _

'_**I don't know either!'**_

"Ryu! We're finished here, and we just got new intel!" Kakashi called out. She looked his way and nodded, letting the rest of the shinobi finish up the white zetsu.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The three of them arrived just as the Masked Man was reaching out to Naruto. "Ryu!" Kakashi sharply called out.

"Got it!" She touched Gai's and Kakashi's shoulders and used hiraishin to transfer the three of them to Naruto, which stopped the Masked Man from being able to grab Naruto but instead had to phrase through him.

"What a nuisance..You waited for the moment I materialized to touch him. Three more maggots will change nothing. Not before the power of the tailed beasts and my eyes!" The Masked Man snarled.

"Ryu! Kakashi-sensei! Bushy Eyebrows-sensei!" Naruto called out in relief.

"You're not the only one with tailed beasts!" Ryu replied.

"Don't forget we have a Sharingan between us too."

"And the Noble Green Beast of Konoha!" Gai added.

"You three are here!" Ryu snickered.

"Well, I was always going to come save you, Naruto." She teased, noticing the odd rock-like objects on him. She raised a chakra infused fist to break them but he moved away.

"Not too hard!" He panicked. She rolled her eyes.

"I can control the strength of my punches, dattebane!" He laughed sheepishly in reply as she broke them.

"Thanks! Oh! That guy has a Sharingan and a Rinnegan in his right and left eyes! And then there's this stake in the left side of his chest and...uhhh!" Naruto started spouting out, really fast.

"Calm down..you're not making any sense." Gai sweat-dropped.

"His right eye is the Sharingan, and his left eye is the Rinnegan. There's some kind of stake in his chest that Pain had...I see." Kakashi rephrased, allowing for a better understanding for Gai. Loud thumping footsteps startled the group and they looked up to see the Five Tails charging at them. Ryu tensed up, ready to go into Kyuubi mode at anytime but Kurama stopped her, telling her to wait and see. The Masked Man raised his arm and a chain appeared around the Five Tail's neck and it fell down but right before it was forced to go back into cloak, the three Jinchuuriki heard,

'_**How could I let myself...be controlled like this…'**_

"Why would he stop one of the tailed beasts?" Gai asked, frowning.

"I don't know. However it seems like he hasn't assumed complete control over that one." Kakashi commented.

"Hey...did you hear that voice, you two?" Bee asked. Ryu nodded.

"Yea.." Naruto replied.

'_**We, tailed beasts, have our own emotions too, you know. Watching one of our own get treated like that naturally pisses us off..!" **_Hachibi growled in frustration.

'_**Keh! Now you start sympathizing? The shinobi have always treated us as pets! Hachibi...you and that Bee kid are the only exception!" **_Yang Kurama scoffed in Naruto.

'_**...I wonder about that, Kyuubi.'**_

"Huh? The Kyuubi can talk with Hachibi?!"

'_**We can talk to our Jinchuuriki. What makes you think we can't talk to other tailed beasts when we are close enough to each other, Naruto?'**_Yin Kurama replied, which startled Naruto, Bee, Hachibi and Yang Kurama. They lapsed into momentarily silence.

'_**I know what is going on with you, Kyuubi.' **_

'_**You mean with one of us. The half that is in Naruto.'**_

'_**...Yes.'**_

'_**Shut your mouths! Both of you! If we were to by tails, you're supposed to be the second strongest after me, aren't you?! And you! The half that is in the other Uzumaki brat, you're half of me, hurry up and finish them off along with the Hachibi! I'm going to sleep!'**_

'_**Strength isn't determined by the number of tails one has! You've always been like this! That's why the one-tailed tanuki hated you! ….Are you even listening to me?! Stop pretending to be asleep, dammit!'**_Naruto started laughing.

"The Kyuubi and the Hachibi are fighting…" He started laughing even harder while gripping his stomach.

" The tailed beasts are whippin' out their telepathy that ain't somethin' you usually see! "

" I gotta agree!~ It ain't somethin' you usually see!~ " Ryu sang, joining in.

"Oooooooh!" Bee said in shock, holding out his fist for her to fist-bump with which she did enthusiastically.

"What are you two doing?! The enemies are upon us! Don't relax because I'm here!" Kakashi barked at them harshly. Both of the twins laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of their heads. Gai and Kakashi went towards the controlled jinchuuriki and three split from the group to head towards Gai and Kakashi and the other three headed towards Bee, Naruto and Ryu.

"Alright! This makes it even!" The three prepared to attack but the Four-Tails suddenly went into Tailed Beast Mode and made a grab for Naruto and Ryu. She was able to dodge away, using her quick reflexes to do so but Naruto didn't have that luxury and was smacked right into the Hachibi. "Dammit! I guess our only hope is to use shadow clones as diversions and try to hit the masked guy straight on!" Naruto grunted in pain.

"You can't many any more clones with the Kyuubi's chakra. You really wanna die? Go on, try and tell me a reason why!" Bee told him off. The Hachibi was suddenly thrown which flung Naruto into the Four-Tail's mouth and he instantly went into Kyuubi-cloak mode to stop it from swallowing him.

"Naruto!" Ryu shouted, flashing to him, which was a move she didn't think through as she knocked both of them into it's stomach.

~The Kyuubi Twins~

The two opened their eyes and saw that they were in a similar chamber to where their own tailed beast was held. **"I take it you want to steal my power from me next, eh? Barging here of all places...you dirty little brats! Hoo Haah!" **

"What the…" The twins said in usion.

"Wait..are you the four-tails?" Naruto asked.

"**Don't call me by that wretched moniker! I have a proper, honorable name!" **He growled. **"I am Son, beautiful ape king of the Suiren Caves! I am Sage King of the Apes, my name bestowed upon me by the Sage of Six Paths himself! You address His Holiness of all the Heavens, Son Goku! Ho Haa Haa!" **

"..."

"What part was your name…?" Naruto asked, confused. "Ho Haa Haa?"

"**Son Goku, you slack-jawed idiot!"** Son Goku retorted, angrily. Ryu giggled. **"Hmph. Humans are all stupid! You can't even remember names properly...you are all dumber than apes!" **Ryu sighed and tuned out the raging tailed beast.

'_Ryu!'_ She heard Kakashi call out frantically within her mind.

'_Hiya!'_ She replied.

'_Don't hiya!, me! Are you alright?!' _

'_Yea, i should be. I'm in the area where the tailed beast is sealed it seems like. It's similar to the sealing chamber within mine and Naruto's body at where the Kyuubi is held.' _

'_Think you can get out?' _

'_Sure. Naruto is talking to the four-tailed beast though, I think it'll be a bit.' _

"Ryu!" Naruto called out, shaking her awake. She sat up and groaned.

"Too many people are calling my name today." She growled.

"Huh? Anyways, here's the plan…" He quickly told her the plan. She nodded in understanding and Naruto created thousands of shadow clones to force Son Goku to barf him out. Ryu held on and stayed inside the mouth, sitting down and focusing on gathering nature chakra. She entered fox sage mode and then jumped into Son Goku's throat.

"Judging from where Naruto's chakra is at..I think it should be here?" She wondered. "Oh well." She focused nature chakra into her fist and punched as hard as she could, making sure to control the chakra so it would push. She felt Naruto's chakra fly away and jumped up the Son's throat and jumped out right before he got sucked into the demon statue. "Yeesh that was way too close for comfort." She sweat-dropped, landing safely onto the ground.

Kakashi landed next to her and pulled her in for a hug. "Yes, that was too close for comfort." He scolded.

"You only stopped one beast, and it looks like you're knocking on Death's door. But I don't intend to be stingy here. You have some very valuable things that belong to me now..and I'm going to take them all." The Masked Man glared. Kakashi felt Ryu's chakra start activating and jumped away, recognizing what she was going to do.

"_**We're not gonna be stingy either!"**_Ryu retorted back, her voice combined with Kurama's as she entered bijuu form with a loud roar.

**Sorry for the very late overdue chapter. **

**I do have somewhat good news I guess? **

**There are plans for a sequel! As in Boruto generation! The main character of that story will be in Boruto's group and another will be older. (Major Hints) That story will loosely follow Boruto but it will be focused more on the characters themselves, rather than following Boruto's. **

**That's all I have to say, so see you next chapter!~**


End file.
